Data modelling and processing for historical Scholarship

Broadly speaking, this seminar will address the application of digital methods in historical research. More specifically, it will tease out how the various components of designing a research project – the research questions, the corpus or corpora of (primary) sources, and the digital tools and methods used – mutually influence each other. Which data is necessary to answer specific research questions and how will these shape the ways in which the data should be structured and modelled? What are the advantages and limitations of existing digital tools and how can they be applied most effectively in relation to the project’s data and the questions it seeks to address and answer? How, in other words, can the humanities side of a project on the one hand, and its digital side on the other, be engaged in a fruitful dialogue?
Touching upon the larger topic of data literacy, this seminar aims to discuss and work out together with the participants about how digital methods can be integrated into historical research projects. It will do so on the basis of some research projects that are currently undertaken at the Digital Humanities Lab at IEG Mainz. This project-based approach allows us to highlight theoretical and practical issues when it comes to the application of digital tools and methods, and to show the links between the former and the project’s research design.