We are delighted that SAUTE-member Ina Habermann has been awarded generous funding by the Swiss National Science Foundation as principal investigator of the research project SwissBritNet (with Lukas Rosenthaler and Regula Hohl Trillini).
The core of the project is a database, compiled in collaboration with hallernet at the University of Bern. It makes available documents such as letters, friendship albums, travel accounts and devotional literature that highlight transnational connections, particularly in areas crucial for Swiss-British relations, such as theology in the 17th century and natural philosophy, science and literature in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Case studies will include two ego-networks (Johann Jacob Frey in the early 17th and Caspar Wettstein in the 18th century) and such key genres as travel writing and devotional literature. The database will be set up in such a way that it is easily accessible for future research and that relevant further materials can be added anytime.
The investigation of transnational relations has been advanced significantly by Digital Humanities approaches. SwissBritNet will add the Swiss-British perspective to a thriving international and interdisciplinary research community, thus helping to promote our understanding of the historical dimension of cultural exchange.