data literacy – DH Lab

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

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. [↩]

Learning about history in a digital world. “The Digital Logbook” as a research project and educational resource

Historical learning processes are omnipresent. They affect all age groups, forms of media, and are encouraged in both formal and non-formal education. But how do we learn to internalize and classify historical knowledge, to evaluate and contextualize it? And how can this be supported in the face of a digitalizing society facing tendencies of increasing political radicalization? My research project attempts to find answers and propose solutions to encourage data literacy and historical thinking by creating the learning platform “The Digital Logbook” and reflecting on its implications. „Learning about history in a digital world. “The Digital Logbook” as a research project and educational resource“ weiterlesen

Das HERMES-Datenkompetenzzentrum für die Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften und seine Formate am IEG

von Judit Garzón Rodríguez

In einer zunehmend digitalen Welt sind Datenkompetenzen für die Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften von entscheidender Bedeutung. Doch während digitale Datenkompetenzen in Disziplinen wie Informatik und Naturwissenschaften längst integraler Bestandteil der Ausbildung sind, bleibt der Zugang zu entsprechenden Schulungen in den Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften oft begrenzt. Und, obwohl das Bewusstsein für die Notwendigkeit digitaler Kompetenzen in diesen Disziplinen wächst, stehen Forschende häufig vor der Herausforderung, wie sie diese in ihre Arbeit zu integrieren. Um dieser Herausforderung zu begegnen, wurde das HERMES Datenkompetenzzentrum gegründet, ein vom BMBF gefördertes Projekt, das Aufbau und Weiterentwicklung von Datenkompetenzen in den Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften unterstützen soll. „Das HERMES-Datenkompetenzzentrum für die Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaften und seine Formate am IEG“ weiterlesen

Dealing with uncertainty and capturing the underrepresented

by Jaap Geraerts

Since I started my project on the schism in the Catholic Church in the eighteenth-century Dutch Republic in the summer of 2019, I have been creating a dataset that comprises the information contained in lists of baptisms, burials, and marriages. This information enables me to trace the movement of Catholics to another, competing Catholic Church in the context of the schism. Consider, for example, Henricus Verbruggen and Maria Blomevelt. They baptised their first two children in a mission station that was part of the Church of Utrecht but had their third and last child baptised in the Roman Catholic Church (see Fig. 1). „Dealing with uncertainty and capturing the underrepresented“ weiterlesen