Chasing statistical nodes – Welcome Adam Dunn
We would like to warmly welcome Adam Dunn as a new (and partly old) PhD student at the ITSH. Adam took his undergraduate degree at the University of York in History, graduating in 2011 before he started his masters in early modern history at the University of St Andrews. After finishing his MLitt at St Andrews he took two gap years where he worked in various places including a law firm and the IT department of a paper mill.
In September 2015, Adam returned to St Andrews starting a research project under the working title “From words to numbers and maps. Transfers, networks and the transformations of statistical thinking in Britain, France and the German lands, c. 1780s-1840s”.
Here is Adam: “I returned to St Andrews to peruse my PhD with Dr. Bernhard Struck at the ITSH. I returned for a number of reasons, not least the fantastic academic atmosphere in St Andrews, but also because of the burgeoning new Institute for Transnational & Spatial History. I am currently half way through my first term as a PhD and am auditing an MLitt module on core skills for transnational history, including historical mapping and database creation.” – A steep and hopefully fruitful learning curve.
Statistics are a fascinating topic, primarily studied and researched within the units that gave birth to modern statistics: the (nation) state. The project seeks to trace actors and networks spun by amateur statisticians – via travel, correspondence, journals – during the decades around 1800. There is more on the project under PhDs.
Welcome Adam – enjoy reading your statistics!