HDSM Team is excited to announce the release of our May newsletter issue.

This newsletter provides updates about the current projects of HDSM, new publications as well as upcoming events. If you are interested in the more updates, please subscribe to our newsletter!

Now available as a citable preprint on a repository of the Deutsche Archäologische Institut

The publication „Fluvio-sozialer Metabolismus als Brückenkonzept mittlerer Reichweite. Ein Vorschlag zur Untersuchung der Fluvialen Anthroposphäre" by Iris Nießen, Gerrit J. Schenk, Marcel Schön treats a bridging concept that was developed as a proposal for interdisciplinary studies of human impact on floodplain landscapes.

The workshop provided participants with a platform for further networking. It is important that as many TU members as possible commit to meeting the climate targets and work together to reduce the university's ecological footprint.

Our colleague Anita Schilz (Department of Medieval Studies) took part in the Secretariat Workshop on Sustainability at TU Darmstadt at the beginning of April. The event was organised and led by the Office for Sustainability. It has been a permanent contact point at the TU since 2020. The sustainability strategy is developed here together with the Vice President for Digitalisation, Sustainability and Infrastructure.

We are delighted to invite you to the 2025 Susan Hockey Lecture – Oral History as Data? Critically approaching the digital turn in method, meaning and recollection – to be delivered by the HDSM chair Professor Julianne Nyhan as in 2025 UCLDH centre celebrates its 15th anniversary. This centre is a part of the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies. UCLDH draws on UCL’s world-class research strength especially in information studies, computing science, and the arts and humanities.

Im elften Newsletter laden wir Interessierte herzlich zur nächsten Coffee Lecture mit Martin Cremer am 6. Juni 2025 ein, berichten über den ersten Durchgang des Praxissemesters und stellen „Obsidian“ als „zweites Gehirn“ vor! Unser Lektürehinweis in diesem Newsletter: Lukas Greven über die Entwicklungen forschend-historischen Lernens mit Oral History im Rahmen des Geschichtswettbewerbs des Bundespräsidenten.

Dramaturgen des Wandels. Die unternehmerische Marktforschung und ihre Rezeption sozioökonomischer Umbrüche der 1970er Jahre

On 2-4 April 2025 in Senate House, University of London DigiCAM25: Born-Digital Collections, Archives and Memory Conference took place. At the conference Prof. Julianne Nyhan gave a presentation titled “On the born-digital turn in oral history: recharting and reimagining the cultural circuit?” together with Andrew Flinn. The focus of this international conference was to further an interdisciplinary discussion on how the born-digital transforms what and how is researched in the humanities, with the help of practitioners shared their valuable insights gained from working with born-digital materials.

We are delighted to share the news that our colleague, Dr. Nadezhda Povroznik, has been appointed as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Digital Humanities Research Hub at the School of Advanced Study (University of London). The fellowship continues from March to July 2025.

Angebot der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt

Studierende des Instituts für Geschichte haben die Möglichkeit, an einem lateinischen Lektürekurs an der Universität Frankfurt teilzunehmen.

We are delighted to share that HDSM, TU Darmstadt and UCL, Centre for Digital Humanities are collaborating on a text mining workshop. Registration is required for attendance.

The Journal of Digital History has just published a call for papers around AI & History for a special issue that will be co-edited by Amanda Regan, Sean Takats and Frédéric Clavert.

Abstract submissions may address any implementation of AI in studies of the human past while maintaining historical and hermeneutical perspectives to appropriately situate contemporary generative AI developments within their historical context. Additionally, submissions should examine these practices within the broader evolution of computational methods (including antecedent mechanographic systems) in humanities and social sciences research since the post-war period (for instance: François Furet, Adeline Daumard 1959). Submissions must adhere to the journal’s established multilayered article format (narrative/hermeneutic/code and data). The submission process comprises two distinct phases: initial abstract submission via the journal’s digital platform, followed by complete manuscript submission. Issue coordinators will subsequently contact authors of selected abstracts to discuss manuscript feasibility and requisite writing environment parameters.

Eine Geschichte der Fehlbarkeit von Mensch und Technologie (Beck Verlag)

Paolo Santonino as an Informant of Culinary Knowledge and Practice in the Alps-Adriatic Region in the 1480s

New Open Access publication by our colleague Stephan Ebert from the Middle Ages Section. Dr Ebert's article examines the travel diary of the Italian lawyer Paolo Santonino (ca. 1440-1507) focusing on the history of food and consumption at the end of the Middle Ages and shows, among other things, how new culinary trends from Italy are tangible in the south-east of the German-speaking world. There, for example, early forms of spaghetti were already being served in the 1480s.

Gezeigt wurde der Stummfilmklassiker „Das Cabinet des Dr. Galigari“ aus dem Jahr 1920 – ein echtes Highlight, das nicht nur Filmfans begeisterte.

für das Themenfeld ‚True Crime‘: Strafgerichtsbarkeit, Verbrechen und Strafe im Odenwald im Spätmittelalter und der Frühen Neuzeit

Eine Ehrung herausragender studentischer Arbeiten

Das Institut für Geschichte verleiht nach 2 Jahren wieder den Karl Otmar Freiherr von Aretin-Preis für herausragende Abschlussarbeiten. Sarah von Petersdorff, Georg Walter und Dominik Roth erhielten den Preis in den Kategorien „B.A.-Thesis“und „Masterarbeit“.

Vorstellung der Forschungsergebnisse im Rahmen eines Projekttreffens

Vom 22. bis 24. Januar trafen sich die Mitglieder des Schwerpunktprogramms 2361 in Nördlingen, um erste Ergebnisse der Forschungen in den einzelnen Projekten vorzustellen und zu diskutieren.

Innovative analytical tool for interdisciplinary studies on nature-induced disasters

The Icelandic eruptions of Eldgjá (939–40 AD) and Laki (1783–84 AD) served as case studies.

Nicolai Hanng im Interview mit dem Deutschlandfunk Kultur Studio 9

Nach zwei Jahren vergibt das Institut für Geschichte erneut den Karl Otmar Freiherr von Aretin-Preis für die besten Abschlussarbeiten im Fach Geschichte.

Das LaG-Magazin – im Gespräch mit Nicolai Hannig

Vor genau 55 Jahren fand ein winterlicher Hilfseinsatz mit Hindernissen statt,