The Promise and Peril of Digital Research in Yiddish: An Interview with Gerben Zaagsma

Diverse speeches and writings (2020)

It seemed fitting to break away from a conference bringing together American and European scholars and researchers working on digital humanities for an old-fashioned face-to-face conversation about ... [more ▼]

It seemed fitting to break away from a conference bringing together American and European scholars and researchers working on digital humanities for an old-fashioned face-to-face conversation about Yiddish. During a conference on Digital Hermeneutics at the German Heritage Institute in Washington, DC, I sat down to talk with Gerben Zaagsma, who is an assistant professor at the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History at the University of Luxembourg. In addition to being the author of the book Jewish Volunteers, the International Brigades and the Spanish Civil War (2017), Zaagsma is the curator of the invaluable online collection of links to all things Yiddish, yiddish-sources.com. In this interview, he talks about his chance encounter with Yiddish that started him on the path to studying klezmer music and the Spanish Civil War. While researching a book on an event with global and long-lasting reverberations, he encountered the potency and the frustrations of digital research. Finally, Zaagsma looks to the future of digital studies and Yiddish. [less ▲]

Denis Scuto an Dr. Gerben Zaagsma iwwer den FORUM Z Holocaust: History and Memory

Diverse speeches and writings (2020)

Déi zwee Historiker erzielen iwwer den FORUM Z, organiséiert vum C2DH, deen haut iwwer den Theema Holocaust: History and Memory, geet. De Forum zu Mondorf an der Orangerie vum Thermalbad ass agedeelt an ... [more ▼]

Déi zwee Historiker erzielen iwwer den FORUM Z, organiséiert vum C2DH, deen haut iwwer den Theema Holocaust: History and Memory, geet. De Forum zu Mondorf an der Orangerie vum Thermalbad ass agedeelt an dräi Deeler: 1. The Holocaust and Jewish life in Luxembourg: filling the gaps 2. Holocaust research in the digital age 3. Combating anti-Semitism in contemporary Europe [less ▲]

Schumann's Eck - an interactive documentary

Computer development (2020)

Interactive web documentary realised by the students of the Bachelor Course in Contemporary History of Luxembourg (Summer Semester 2019) in collaboration with the National Museum of Military History ... [more ▼]

Interactive web documentary realised by the students of the Bachelor Course in Contemporary History of Luxembourg (Summer Semester 2019) in collaboration with the National Museum of Military History, Diekirch. [less ▲]

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

Diverse speeches and writings (2019)

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 ... [more ▼]

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. [less ▲]

Interview with Prof. Dr Jane Winters (School of Advanced Study, University of London)

Diverse speeches and writings (2019)

In this interview, Professor Jane Winters gives an overview of her career, starting as a medieval historian to becoming a professor in digital history. She talks about her main work with born digital ... [more ▼]

In this interview, Professor Jane Winters gives an overview of her career, starting as a medieval historian to becoming a professor in digital history. She talks about her main work with born digital archives and reflects on how web archive changes historical research. ‘History from below’ with a big interest in genealogy and local history being very popular in the UK, she describes the character of digital history in her country and the response of both amateur and professional historians to digitisation. She pleads for more digital pedagogy at an earlier stage of the curriculum and underlines the importance of the relationship between digital humanities and other stakeholders like librarians and archivists. In her view, the next big challenge in digital humanities will be the non-text media analysis. [less ▲]

Digital History and the Politics of Digitization

Presentation (2019, July 10)

This paper will present the first findings of an ongoing research project. It is about the digital resources we work with as historians; in the first place with regard to what is being digitized, the ... [more ▼]

This paper will present the first findings of an ongoing research project. It is about the digital resources we work with as historians; in the first place with regard to what is being digitized, the sources and data, and to a lesser degree the metadata, notwithstanding the latter’s profound political aspects and effects, e.g. with regard to access. To avoid misunderstandings: it is not about the politics of digital humanities more broadly conceived; e.g. about addressing claims that it is incumbent upon DH to fulfil a political mission or become a more self-critical discipline by consciously investigating its own gender, diversity and other biases. [less ▲]

Interview with Prof. Dr David Bodenhamer (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis)

Diverse speeches and writings (2019)

In this interview, Professor David Bodenhamer gives an overview of his career, from his beginnings as a constitutional legal historian to becoming a new digital historian. He illustrates how GIS changed ... [more ▼]

In this interview, Professor David Bodenhamer gives an overview of his career, from his beginnings as a constitutional legal historian to becoming a new digital historian. He illustrates how GIS changed the nature of his work and explains the notion of ‘deep mapping’, emphasizing the importance of our human experience with places. He concludes by outlining the most exciting developments going on in digital history in his view. [less ▲]

Doing History in the Digital Age - On Hybridity, Hermeneutics and the Politics of Digitisation

Presentation (2019, May 09)

This talk centers around the changing practice of doing history in the digital age, seen within the broader historical context of developments in the so-called digital humanities. It argues that there is ... [more ▼]

This talk centers around the changing practice of doing history in the digital age, seen within the broader historical context of developments in the so-called digital humanities. It argues that there is too much emphasis on tools and data while too little attention is being paid to how the practice of doing history is changing as a result of the digital turn. It will also contextualise and historicise what we mean by ‘digital turn’ and, indeed, ‘digital history’; the current buzz around digital humanities notwithstanding, computers have been used in humanities research since at least the late 1940s. And as long as they have existed, the question of their uptake in humanist and historical research practices has been debated. So what, then, is new? In his talk, Zaagsma will focus on three key points that are relevant to debates about digital history. First of all, he will argue that in many ways hybridity is the new normal, and in fact has been for a much longer time than is often suggested. Nonetheless, we still need a more conscious hybrid approach to historical research that combines ’traditional’ with digital hermeneutical approaches in a new practice of doing history. Secondly, he will discuss how such digital hermeneutical approaches can be seen, in light of the often-voiced scepticism that ‘classic’ hermeneutical approaches are undermined by supposedly new, digital quantitative and/or positivist methodologies. And thirdly, he will address the broader issue of how digitisation affects historical research, and the stories we can and cannot tell, in ways that historians are only beginning to understand. [less ▲]

Forum Z: "Who is afraid of the Digital?"

Conference given outside the academic context (2019)

#DHJewish - Jewish Studies and Digital Humanities (prototype website)

Computer development (2019)

This pilot project aimed at building an online portal that provides informa tion about the intersec tion of Jewish Studies and Digital Humani ties. The prototype website that we created (internal only ... [more ▼]

This pilot project aimed at building an online portal that provides informa tion about the intersec tion of Jewish Studies and Digital Humani ties. The prototype website that we created (internal only) will be further developed in 2020 with a second stage grant. [less ▲]