The Database of Religious History: Big Data Approaches to Religious Cultural History

The Database of Religious History (DRH) is an online encyclopedia that systematically collects information on religious groups, providing a novel resource for both the scientific and religious studies communities. It solves two pressing needs: For scientists testing hypotheses about the cultural evolution of religion, it provides an unprecedented, infinitely-expandable, standardized, expert-sourced database. For the religious studies community facing information overload unmanageable with current technologies, it serves as a forum for scholarly debate and an instantly accessible record of current scholarly opinion, sourced from a global community and brought together on a multilingual, open-source platform. By Spring 2018, we intend to have at least 800 entries, a more user-friendly database and engaging visualization tools, and to have established the DRH as a non-profit foundation that will continue as an ever-growing resource for both the scholarly community and general public.

Faculty Supervisor:

Mark Collard;Edward Slingerland

Student:

Partner:

Pieoneers Web Technologies Inc

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Information and cultural industries

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program: