Viabundus Finland 1350-1650 – Academic conference II: The Road Goes on

The conference aims to

1. bring together various scholars, projects and institutions who work with medieval and early modern roads, traffic, and trade from the point of view of historical geospatial information systems (HGIS), digital humanities, and themes related to them
2. discuss the best practices, experiences, and new approaches on how to visualize, utilize, and present historical geospatial data on roads and routes both in academic research and public history.

The program consists of two keynote speakers (30 minutes & 15 minutes of discussion) and five sessions of 2-3 invited presentations (20 minutes & 10 minutes of discussion each) by international scholars and representatives of institutions and projects active in the field. All the sessions and the other program of the conference will be hosted by the Finnish Postal Museum at the Vapriikki Museum Centre Auditorium in Tampere (Alaverstaanraitti 5) on Friday and Saturday, February the 16th and 17th, 2024.
Please enrol no later than 7 Feb 2024. You can also enrol to follow the conference online. The conference is free of charge.

Sign up here.

Preliminary program

Fri 16 Feb (Vapriikki Museum Centre Auditorium) 

9.30 Welcoming words by Viabundus Finland project
9.45 Keynote, Dr. Niels Petersen (University of Göttingen)
10.30 Viabundus in the North

• PhD, docent Tapio Salminen (Tampere university): Viabundus Finland 1350–1650. Challenges and Solutions  
• Research engineer Johan Åhlfeldt (University of Gothenburg): Towards a Swedish Viabundus project: A pilot project for the evaluation of methods and sources in mapping Late Medieval and Early Modern roads in Western Sweden.  
• PhD Kasper M. Andersen (Moesgaard Museum): Connecting a world of water. The role of ferries in medieval and early modern Denmark.  

12.00 Lunch (at own cost for non-speakers)
13.00 Sources and Possibilities

• MA Michał Gochna (Polish Academy of Sciences): Digital elaboration of Karol Perthées’ works as a step towards a comprehensive reconstruction of the road network of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Early Modern times.  
• Dr. Mikola Volkau (European Humanities University, Lithuania): Roads in Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1350-1650: research opportunities.  
• N.N.: tba

14.30 Coffee
15.00 Emotions and Experiences on the Road

• Professor Katie Barclay (Heidelberg University & University of Adelaide): Lonely Spaces: Emotion, Meaning and Movement.  
• Professor Raisa Toivo (Tampere University): The Road as an Experience in Space
• Postdoc researcher Jenni Lares (Tampere University): Tavern as an Experienced Space

16.30 Concluding words

Saturday 17 Feb (Vapriikki Museum Centre Auditorium) 

9.00 Opening words
9.15 Keynote, Museum Director, CEO Sami Louekari (Finnish Postal Museum)
10.00 HGIS and Spatiality

• Doctoral researcher Ville-Pekka Kääriäinen (University of Helsinki): A Humanistic Approach to GIS: From Simple Maps to Complex Spatial Analysis.  
• University researcher Eljas I. Oksanen (University of Helsinki): FAIR Data Perspectives on Digitizing Roads and Communications Routes: Considerations Emerging from the Historical Travel and Communications in Finland c. 1650-1917 Project  
• Dr. Bart Holtermann (German Maritime Museum): Spatial analysis of premodern infrastructure networks: the example of Cologne  

11.30 Lunch (at own cost for non-speakers)
12.30 Mapping and Presenting Experiences in Travelling and Communication

• Professor Sari Katajala-Peltomaa (University of Turku): Saints and places: challenges and benefits of mapping lived religion 
• Doctoral researcher Katrina Virtanen (University of Turku): Mapping Experiential GIS
• Tiia Tiainen (Finnish Postal Museum): Taking the old culture heritage for a ride? The journey of the Museum with National Responsibility relating to Communication, Games, Post and Digital Life

14.00 Coffee
14.30 Discussion on co-operation and further projects
15.30 Conclusion