James Baker is a Lecturer in Digital History and Archives at the University of Sussex and at the Sussex Humanities Lab. He is a Software Sustainability Institute Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and holds degrees from the University of Southampton and the University of Kent.

James cares about how people interact with things. His published research has focused on topics as diverse as long eighteenth century. His curatorial practice focuses on born-digital objects, personal digital archives, and digital forensics. His pedagogical work includes founding Library Carpentry in 2015. Accepting a 2016 British Library Labs Award on behalf of Library Carpentry was a recent highlight.

Prior to joining Sussex, James has held positions of Digital Curator at the British Library and Postdoctoral Fellow with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. He is a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College, a convenor of the Institute of Historical Research Digital History seminar and a member of the History Lab Plus Advisory Board.

I’ve worked at the intersection of research, libraries, and archives most of my career. Digital is a vital thread to that work, and librarians are key partners in what I do. I’m delighted to be part of the LIBER Digital Humanities Working Group, to share my experience of teaching librarians computational skills, and to learn from some of the most forward thinking librarians in Europe.