Will Thomas Selected For Eccles Center Honor

Friday, 23 May 2008 10:03

Will Thomas, UNL professor of history, has been selected as the Eccles Center Visiting Professor in North American Studies at the British Library, where he will study in residence for 10 weeks at King's College London digital humanities center.

Thomas, on leave under a Digital Innovation Fellowship award from the American Council of Learned Societies, will continue his studies of the impact of railroads on American culture, which he says were the "disruptive technology" of the 19th century.

Thomas, who was planning on studying in England because of its heavy investment in American railroads in the 19th century, believes the timing for receiving this honor was perfect. "I kept finding all this railroad material and stumbled into the Eccles Center and its fellowship call. So I applied," Thomas said.

At UNL since 2005, Thomas holds the John and Catherine Angle Chair in the Humanities, where he specializes in digital scholarship, focusing on creating the largest historical database of railroads and social change. He says he was attracted to the University because of the significant commitments being made to digital humanities, scholarships and collaborations.

Previously, Thomas was a co-founder of the University of Virginia's Center for Digital History, where he worked on a recently-aired documentary of the African-American experience in the civil rights era called "Rising Up." Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET) will air the documentary this summer.

For more information on the railroad project, visit railroads.unl.edu.