五一茶馆儿

>

Quantum Potential Video Series

AI Unearths Untold Stories

Historians Jane Landers and Daniel Genkins leverage artificial intelligence and computer science techniques to scan through thousands of historical documents to form the Slave Societies Digital Archive, the world鈥檚 largest collection of historical records of Africans in the Atlantic World.

test tray

Watch the Video Feature

We鈥檙e not just constructing single lives in isolation. We鈥檙e reconstructing communities.

Daniel Genkins Daniel Genkins
Mellon assistant professor of history and digital humanities

Explore More

  • Meet Jane Landers and Daniel Genkins

    Jane Landers

    Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt professor of history and Director of the Slave Societies Digital Archive

    Jane Landers is a historian specializing in the history of Africans and their descendants in Colonial Latin America and the Atlantic World. Landers directs the Slave Societies Digital Archive hosted by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries at Vanderbilt. The SSDA preserves endangered ecclesiastical and secular documents related to slavery in the Atlantic World.

    Daniel Genkins

    Mellon assistant professor of history and digital humanities and executive听director of the Slave Societies Digital Archive

    Daniel Genkins is an assistant professor of history and digital humanities. He also conducted his graduate studies in history, digital humanities and data science at Vanderbilt. Toward the end of his graduate student career, he began working on the Slave Societies Digital Archive, where he is now the executive director.听听

    听

  • Dive Deeper

    听

  • Researcher Spotlight

    Justin Jones is a second-year Ph.D. student working under the direction of Jane Landers and Brandon Byrd. His research interests include migration, refugees, slavery and the law associated with the Haitian Revolution. Jones looks at how these factors created and maintained connections of the U.S., the Caribbean and South America.

    Jones is also very interested in digital humanities, particularly the use of GIS for tracking migrations. His research in the SSDA is focused on records of Fort Mose, the first free Black settlement in Florida.

Recent Stories