Campus Medius: Digital Mapping in Cultural and Media Studies

Simon Ganahl (Mag. DDr. phil.), born in 1981, researches and teaches at the University of Vienna as a literature and media scholar with a focus on digital humanities. He directs the digital mapping project Campus Medius and edits the peer-reviewed, open-access journal Genealogy+Critique. After studies in Vienna, Hamburg, and Zurich, he obtained PhD degrees both in communication science and in German philology at the University of Vienna. He was a visiting researcher in the School of Media Studies at The New School in New York and a visiting lecturer in the Center for Digital Humanities at UCLA. His research work has received several awards and grants (e.g., APART from the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Schrödinger from the Austrian Science Fund).

»Precisely because it is so difficult to reconstruct and present the most diverse facets of an issue in their interactions at the same time, one of the undeniable merits of this approach is to concede the historical subject its multidimensionality, not to reduce it to one-dimensional perspectives. [...] Undoubtedly, the project points the way that will (also) have to be taken in the new historiographical age. [...] Formally, it remains to be noted that the text is formulated in a markedly comprehensible manner, despite the sometimes quite complex subject matter, radiating high professional competence and linguistic mastery.« Wolfgang Pensold, medien & zeit, 38/1 (2023), translated from German »'Campus Medius' takes a scholarly, sophisticated, and highly innovative step in pushing German(-language) digital humanities forward, with its intriguing insights spanning German and Austrian Studies, Media Studies, and cultural history more broadly - while exploring the rich intersections between and among all four of those fields.« Jaimey Fisher, The German Quarterly, 96/2 (2023) »The reader or user encounters a fascinating panorama of Austrian cultural history between the wars. 'Campus Medius' offers a stimulating new approach to Austrian Studies and a very high level of fruitful theoretical insights and reflection. The project demonstrates the great potential of independent digital research in the humanities: We need more of this.« Christian Zolles, Journal of Austrian Studies, 56/2 (2023) »Simon Ganahl achieves a great feat: one not only reads about the phenomenon of medial experiences, but also experiences them first-hand, including all the differentiations. This makes an immersion in Campus Medius a gain not only from a scientific but also a personal perspective and should be imitated many times over.« Erkan Osmanovic, medienimpulse, 60/3 (2022), translated from German Audio: »An attempt to advance the publication system in the humanities« - Simon Ganahl in the Research Library Podcast from April 4, 2022. Besprochen in: Interview with the author on Ö1, Salzburger Nachtstudio, 21.09.2022

»Precisely because it is so difficult to reconstruct and present the most diverse facets of an issue in their interactions at the same time, one of the undeniable merits of this approach is to concede the historical subject its multidimensionality, not to reduce it to one-dimensional perspectives. [...] Undoubtedly, the project points the way that will (also) have to be taken in the new historiographical age. [...] Formally, it remains to be noted that the text is formulated in a markedly comprehensible manner, despite the sometimes quite complex subject matter, radiating high professional competence and linguistic mastery.«
Wolfgang Pensold, medien & zeit, 38/1 (2023), translated from German

»›Campus Medius‹ takes a scholarly, sophisticated, and highly innovative step in pushing German(-language) digital humanities forward, with its intriguing insights spanning German and Austrian Studies, Media Studies, and cultural history more broadly - while exploring the rich intersections between and among all four of those fields.«
Jaimey Fisher, The German Quarterly, 96/2 (2023)

»The reader or user encounters a fascinating panorama of Austrian cultural history between the wars.
›Campus Medius‹ offers a stimulating new approach to Austrian Studies and a very high level of fruitful theoretical insights and reflection. The project demonstrates the great potential of independent digital research in the humanities: We need more of this.«
Christian Zolles, Journal of Austrian Studies, 56/2 (2023)

»Simon Ganahl achieves a great feat: one not only reads about the phenomenon of medial experiences, but also experiences them first-hand, including all the differentiations. This makes an immersion in Campus Medius a gain not only from a scientific but also a personal perspective and should be imitated many times over.«
Erkan Osmanovic, medienimpulse, 60/3 (2022), translated from German

Audio: »An attempt to advance the publication system in the humanities« - Simon Ganahl in the Research Library Podcast from April 4, 2022.

Besprochen in:
Interview with the author on Ö1, Salzburger Nachtstudio, 21.09.2022