Interview with Dr. Melvin Wevers (KNAW Humanities Cluster, Amsterdam)

In this interview, Melvin Wevers begins by talking about his career and his contribution to the first big text mining project in the Netherlands. He shares his experiences in approaching, working and interpreting the data and discusses the risks of both data-driven and hypothesis-driven research. He then talks about the new developments in computer vision which can be relevant to historians and about the importance of modelling in digital enabled historical research. He continues with an overview of the major projects he’s currently involved in and comments on the role of the “digital humanist”. He concludes by pointing out new trends, which in his view will shape the digital history of the future.