Doing Digital Hermeneutics in an Interdisciplinary Setting

This contribution examines the conference theme from the perspective of the Doctoral Training Unit (DTU) in ‘Digital History and Hermeneutics’, a four-year interdisciplinary research and training program funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) and hosted by the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH) at the University of Luxembourg. The DTU is designed as an experimental platform for collaboration, in which thirteen doctoral candidates with different disciplinary backgrounds – from history, linguistics and philosophy to computer and information science – study and reflect on the epistemological and methodological implications of the ‘digital turn’ on historical research. The presentation takes a look back at the project’s first year, in which the doctoral candidates were introduced to various skills and methods in digital humanities, including text mining, digital source criticism, database structures, data visualization, GIS analysis, tool criticism and algorithmic critique. Based on experiences by the doctoral students themselves as reflected in semi-structured interviews, as well as drawing upon studies in interdisciplinarity, digital humanities, and the role of space(s) in scientific collaborations, the possibilities and challenges will be explored of doing digital history and hermeneutics in an interdisciplinary setting.