http://prosopography.modhist.ox.ac.uk

 

Prosopography is an extremely effective auxiliary discipline of social history pioneered by Ancient historians but now widely used by historians of all periods. Its object is the analysis of a mass of biographical data about individuals in order to understand the formation, function and interplay of groups or networks. The outcome of the research is a body of information about these groups or networks which goes beyond the sum total of the multiple sources on which it is based to produce a new or metasource. Prosopography is therefore especially valuable in fields where there is a paucity of raw data, or where the data are especially difficult to interpret.

Oxford University’s Research Development Fund awarded a grant in May 2004 to enable team of graduate assistants to work with Dr Katharine Keats-Rohan to produce a Manual, or Guide to Prosopography, to arrange a series of seminars (which took place during Michaelmas Term 2004), to arrange conference for summer 2005 and to develop some web-based resources for prosopography.

The Guide is intended as a synthesis for specialists and an entry point for newcomers. It will also form an essential reference work for any taught course which may be developed.

The project will run initially until July 2005.

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