Information on Loughborough
News Index
2012
May 2012Apr 2012
Mar 2012
Feb 2012
Jan 2012
2011
Dec 2011Nov 2011
Oct 2011
Sep 2011
Aug 2011
Jul 2011
Jun 2011
May 2011
Apr 2011
Mar 2011
Feb 2011
Jan 2011
2010
Dec 2010Nov 2010
Oct 2010
Sep 2010
Aug 2010
Jul 2010
Jun 2010
May 2010
Apr 2010
Mar 2010
Feb 2010
Jan 2010
2009
Dec 2009Nov 2009
Oct 2009
Sep 2009
Aug 2009
Jul 2009
Jun 2009
May 2009
Apr 2009
Mar 2009
Feb 2009
Jan 2009
2008
Dec 2008Nov 2008
Oct 2008
Sep 2008
Aug 2008
Jul 2008
Jun 2008
May 2008
Apr 2008
Mar 2008
Feb 2008
Jan 2008
2007
Dec 2007Nov 2007
Oct 2007
Sep 2007
Aug 2007
Jul 2007
Jun 2007
May 2007
Migration and mobility
Posted on 20/01/2012
University of Leicester
A University of Leicester Professor has led a research bid which has won a prestigious international award amid stiff competition.
Professor Kevin Schürer is among a group of historians who have won funding for their proposal to research 19th century migration in Britain and North America.
Professor Schürer, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise, leads the Mining Microdata project which involves a team of researchers who have been awarded a share of £3 million in grants from the Digging Into Data Challenge.
Their research is part of an international competition that promotes innovative humanities and social science research using large-scale data analysis.
The grant will allow them to use data-mining technology to investigate census information from Britain, Canada and the United States of America – covering more than 100 million people – in order to compare geographical and economical mobility in each country.
The team believes that the questions of what the levels, trends and characteristics associated with people's movement have never been properly answered.
Professor Schürer said: “The recent availability of nominal-level large-scale historical data across several countries allows us to explore issues and questions unthinkable only a few years ago. This project aims to do just that. The internationally comparative and collaborative nature of the project will also add interesting and challenging dimensions.”
They hope the huge source of data they have access to – which was partly digitized by commercial firms for genealogical research – as well as new technology they have developed for analysing historical records will allow them to draw new conclusions about migration.
Professor Schürer, who is also an honorary research professor at the University of Essex, is working with Dr Matthew Woollard, head of the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex along with researchers from the University of Alberta, the Université de Montréal and the University of Guelph in Canada and the University of Minnesota in the USA.
The award was funded by eight international research organisations from four countries – including the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
A total of 14 teams from the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States will receive grants of over £3m in total to investigate how computational techniques typically applied to the sciences can also be applied to change humanities and social sciences research.
Pictured: Professor Kevin Schürer.