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Data ethics in historical research: Recognizing responsibility

Data may be misleadingly considered an objective and impartial product. When doing historical research based on data (re)use, applying an ethical perspective becomes essential. Data is neither neutral or objective, nor are our practices for accessing, analyzing, and documenting it. Any discourse on the production of knowledge or on technology that creates and/or manipulates knowledge implies an ethical discourse and (un)conscious decisions. Ethics imply responsibility, as ignoring ethical issues or not taking action means, in many cases, perpetuating the existing biases and inequalities. The need for scholarly exchange in order to navigate the multifaceted and complex dimensions of research ethics was also reflected in the more than 200 registrations for the conference “Data Ethics for Historical Research in a Digital Era”, about which we would like to share our thoughts in this blog post.1

„Data ethics in historical research: Recognizing responsibility“ weiterlesen

  1. Author contribution according to CReditT: Writing – original draft: Sofia Baroncini, Constanze Buyken, Fabian Cremer, Ian Kisil Marino, Sarah Oberbichler, Cindarella Petz, Elena Suárez Cronauer, Thorsten Wübbena. []

Rethinking Libraries in the Age of AI: Impressions and Takeaways from TPDL 2025

This year, the 29th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries (TPDL 2025) took place in Tampere, Finland, from September 23–26. I attended the conference together with Sarah Oberbichler from the DH Lab to present our joint paper, “Studying Model Design Biases in LLMs for Multilingual Historical Newspaper Extraction; The Messina Earthquake Case Study”, in which we propose an explainability-driven framework to detect and analyze biases in large language models used for multilingual historical newspaper article extraction.

Focusing on the conference’s many LLM-related contributions, this blog post explores how digital libraries are evolving under the continuous advancement of AI and what digital humanities can contribute to the field. „Rethinking Libraries in the Age of AI: Impressions and Takeaways from TPDL 2025“ weiterlesen

From Access to Ethics: Data Discussions at the DH2025 Conference in Lisbon

by Sofia Baroncini, Constanze Buyken, Judit Garzón Rodríguez, Ian Kisil Marino, Sarah Oberbichler, Cindarella Petz

The 2025 Digital Humanities Conference, held this year in Lisbon under the theme “Building Access and Accessibility: Open Science to All Citizens”, brought together a global community of researchers, developers, and practitioners to reflect on the role of openness, inclusivity, and ethics in digital scholarship. Hosted in the vibrant academic and cultural setting of Lisbon, the conference offered a rich program of keynotes, panels, workshops, and poster sessions, engaging with pressing questions around public participation, digital infrastructure, and the ethical responsibilities of working with data and digital tools in the humanities.

The conference theme built on the legacy of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002) and extended the conversation to contemporary challenges and opportunities surrounding Open Science. Contributions addressed a wide range of topics—from citizen humanities and inclusive digital platforms to multilingual practices, the ethics of AI, and FAIR/CARE principles—demonstrating the many ways in which the Digital Humanities community is actively shaping more equitable and transparent research practices. „From Access to Ethics: Data Discussions at the DH2025 Conference in Lisbon“ weiterlesen

RSA 2022 in Dublin

By Jaap Geraerts

Two weeks ago, from March 29 until April 2, the Renaissance Society of America (RSA) conference took place in Dublin. It’s probably the largest conference for academics interested in the early modern period and it customarily attracts scholars from various historical disciplines and fields from all over the world. Over the last couple of years, the number of papers and panels on the digital humanities has been steadily increasing at this conference. For me this is good news: RSA now offers me a platform to share both my latest archival findings and to showcase the technical side of my project. „RSA 2022 in Dublin“ weiterlesen