معرفی
Dr. Zoe Alker is a Lecturer in Historical Social Data Science at Lancaster University's History Department within the School of Global Affairs, joining the institution in 2022. Her research establishes interdisciplinary approaches combining history, osteoarchaeology, criminology, and digital humanities to advance histories of crime, justice, and punishment in Britain from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. She has pioneered innovative methods for enhancing public engagement with digital history through open access digital archives containing approximately 35 billion words of primary sources, including the Digital Panopticon, Convict Tattoos, and Skin and Bone projects.
Dr. Alker's research focuses on the digital history of crime, justice, and punishment, with particular emphasis on creating interdisciplinary methodologies that merge historical analysis with data science. Her work examines embodied experiences of injury, accidents, and interpersonal violence during the Industrial Revolution by merging ten disparate datasets from criminal, hospital, and osteoarchaeological records. She has developed data mining and visualization techniques to analyze tattooed convicts (76,000 descriptions) and their cultural significance in British society. Her current research includes examining deaths in prison custody using machine learning and writing a monograph on the history of femicide, violence, and misogyny in Victorian England. Her methodological innovations have applications across various humanities and social sciences disciplines dealing with complex, multivariate data.
Dr. Alker's publications reveal a consistent focus on historical criminology, digital methodologies, and interdisciplinary approaches. Her work demonstrates how digital humanities techniques can transform traditional historical research, particularly in analyzing large-scale historical datasets related to crime and punishment. The publications show evolving sophistication in data analysis methods, from basic digital archives to advanced data mining and machine learning applications. A notable trend is the increasing integration of gender analysis into crime history, with growing attention to femicide, gendered violence, and women's experiences within historical justice systems. Her research also demonstrates strong connections between historical patterns of crime and contemporary criminal justice issues.
Dr. Alker actively engages in academic service and knowledge dissemination. She serves as Chief Editor of the SOLON Explorations in Crime and Criminal Justice book series, demonstrating leadership in her field. Her research has been supported by prestigious funding bodies including the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust, with grants for projects like 'Skin and Bone' and 'Analysing Convict Tattoos.' She maintains active collaborations with scholars at institutions including the University of Sheffield and University of Exeter. Her work extends beyond academia through media appearances on BBC, The Times, Independent, Observer, CNN, and the Smithsonian, as well as collaborations with activist organizations and policy think tanks including the Howard League for Penal Reform.
Dr. Alker supervises PhD students in Historical and Social Data Science, Digital Humanities, Crime and Criminal Justice History, and Gender History. Her supervision interests reflect her interdisciplinary approach, bridging traditional historical research with computational methods. She has developed the 'Digital Classroom' approach, incorporating new social media into teaching Victorian crime, demonstrating innovation in pedagogy alongside research. Her commitment to public engagement is evident in her creation of open access digital archives that provide searchable access to primary historical sources, making academic research accessible to broader audiences.
