The Imperiia Project: a spatial history of the Russian EmpireMain MenuProjectsDashboardsData CatalogMapStoriesGalleriesGamesWho said history was boring?Teach Our ContentCiting the ProjectKelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5The Imperiia Project // Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
You know the joke: a historian, a map, and a microchip walk into a bar...
Doing spatial history requires maintaining a decent sense of humor. It also means relying on the combined expertise of social scientists, humanists, data scientists, librarians, and GIS specialists. Together we develop ways to utilize sources that have been neglected for decades (if not centuries) because they are hard to work with. The volume of dry statistical tables that makes most people run in the opposite direction? For us it is the stuff of dreams. The map most people treat as an illustration? For us it is the ultimate primary source. We like to experiment. And each project in our portfolio has a trio of goals:
to create new historical knowledge;
to solve a shared methodological problem;
to produce a user-friendly and publicly-accessible piece of history.
Whether you happen to be in a classroom or a library, at a kitchen table or a busy cafe, if you find yourself poring over maps or pondering places or spaces, we are working on these projects with you in mind.
