“Oral History and the digital transformation. Some historical, ethical and methodological remarks” by Prof. Dr. Linde Apel

Bewerbungsfrist: 28.01.2025

On 20th Janury 14:25 (CET) Chris Pandza will give an open lecture on Curating large oral history archives with artificial intelligence as a part of the Voices Unbound: Lecture Series on Digital Oral History.

The abstract of the talk is as follows: Artificial intelligence (AI) presents new opportunities for assisted oral history curation—but also new pitfalls. What could the role(s) of AI be in the process of curation? Does AI necessarily reinforce its own biases on a collection, or can it help curators measure and mitigate their own biases? How does AI interact with the ethical and epistemological frameworks that shape oral history? Using real-world examples from the Ellis Island Oral History (National Park Service), Obama Presidency Oral History (Incite at Columbia University), and The Elders Project (Incite), I will demonstrate a number of innovative AI techniques that practitioners can use to prepare oral history collections for public use. In addition, I will demonstrate how AI can be used to make a project’s curation process more rigorous and inclusive.

Tagung an der TU Darmstadt, 19.–21. Februar 2025 im Lichtenberghaus

Der christliche Märtyrerkult war im 3. Jahrhundert ein geographisch wie lokal beschränktes Phänomen. Unter Kaiser Konstantin und im weiteren Verlauf des 4. und 5. Jahrhunderts erlebte er jedoch eine atemberaubende Entwicklung, deren Bedeutung für die Christianisierung weiter Teile der Bevölkerung des Imperiums wohl immer noch unterschätzt wird. Die Tagung nimmt multiperspektivisch die Schnittstellen zwischen Literatur, religiöser Praxis, Archäologie und Urbanistik in den Fokus, um diesen nur schwer erfassbaren Bereich der frühchristlichen Geschichte auszuleuchten. Dazu sollen verschiedene Fachdisziplinen miteinander ins Gespräch gebracht werden, darunter Alte bzw. Spätantike Geschichte, Theologie, Archäologie und Byzantinistik.

Donnerstag, 23. Januar 2025 um 16:15 Uhr, S3/13 Raum 30

Vortragstitel: „Die Frau auf der Athene-Karte. Eine Göttin als Role-Model vor zweieinhalbtausend Jahren und heute“

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and best wishes from all @ HDSM for a healthy, peaceful and prosperous 2025! HDSM would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year filled with prosperity and abundance. May you be surrounded by love and warmth during this special time. HDSM Team is excited to announce the release of our December newsletter issue. This newsletter provides updates about the current projects of HDSM, new publications as well as recent and upcoming events. If you are interested in the more updates, please subscribe to our newsletter! (See link below)

Im neunten Newsletter laden wir herzlich zu gleich zwei Coffee Lectures am 29. Januar 2025 ein: Zu Gast ist Dr. Franziska Conrad. Weiterhin rufen wir zum Mitspielen beim Planspielworkshop im Februar 2025 auf und berichten über den Besuch von Frau Grabarits im Studienseminar Darmstadt! Außerdem stellen wir die Webseite jugendopposition.de und die 2020 erschienene Dissertation “DDR-Geschichte im Klassenzimmer” vor.

Interdisciplinary potentials for the research of the food history of the Middle Ages

Research projects on nutrition are often labelled as food studies. But, what are food studies of the Middle Ages or respectively pre-modern times? The conference will consider examples that address current research projects and their methods as well as theoretical and methodological ideas for framing a pre-modern food history and thus sharpen the concept of food studies.

Nathalie Fridzema is a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen specializing in early Dutch web cultures and digital heritage. She has a bachelor and (research) master in Media Studies with a minor in Digital Humanities. Whilst working as research assistant together with Prof. Dr Susan Aasman on a preliminary web project, Nathalie delved into internet provider XS4ALL and personal homepages. These pilot studies formed the foundation for her ICOG PhD project at the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies in Groningen. The objective of the PhD project is to create a cultural history of web practices before web 2.0, specifically in the Netherlands between 1994 and 2004. This period of the preliminary web – characterized by idealistic initiatives adhering to utopian ideals like participatory democracy, freedom, and accessibility – is often overshadowed by the swift development of platforms and social media. In this project, Nathalie will take a critical look into this influential period, focusing on the everyday user and website maker.

Last “Voices Unbound” Seminar for 2024: on 16 December Dr. Almila Akdag Salah will give an open lecture on Breathing Emotions & Stories: A different way of navigating Oral History Archives. This event is a part of a lecture series co-organised by TU Darmstadt, University College London, Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) and the Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte. The series is convened by Julianne Nyhan (TU Darmstadt), Andrew Flinn, Andreas Vlachidis, and Marco Humbel (UCL), Shih-Pei Chen (Max Planck Institute), and Gerben Zaagsma (C²DH), offering an important way of keeping up to date with the methodological and theoretical state of the art in digital oral history.

Dr. Norah Karrouche (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, NL) gives an open lecture ‘Can oral history data be FAIR? Lessons learnt from building a digital infrastructure for oral history in the Netherlands‘ next Monday, 2 December at 14:25 (CET), as a part of the Voices Unbound: Lecture Series on Digital Oral History.

Playing and reflecting on the historical diversity simulation game Constantinople – Kapalı Çarşı together

That's the point: To what extent can simulation games be used to teach democracy and diversity skills? How can the simulation game method be used in school lessons, especially in the subject of history? To what extent is history used in the simulation game Constantinople – Kapalı Çarşı?

HDSM is excited to share the news that next Monday, 11 November 14:25 (CET), Dr. Michael Townsen Hicks will give a talk on “Intersectional Feminist Perspectives on Digital Museum Collections through Counterdata Visualisations” as a part of the Voices Unbound: Lecture Series on Digital Oral History. A lecture series co-organised by TU Darmstadt, University College London, Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) and the Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte.

Florenz als Forum und Fluchtpunkt

Das Italienforum der Rhein-Main-Universitäten veranstaltet in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Evenari-Forum für deutsch-jüdische Geschichte an der TU Darmstadt eine Tagung zu dem Thema „Florenz als Forum und Fluchtpunkt. Austausch zwischen Deutschland und Italien vom langen 19. Jahrhundert bis zur Besetzung durch Nazideutschland“

Voices Unbound? Exploring new and/or possible directions in digital and experimental oral history: Ringvorlesung seminar series in Winter Semester 2024/25

What? A lecture series co-organised by TU Darmstadt, University College London, Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) and the Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte. The series is convened by Julianne Nyhan (TU Darmstadt), Andrew Flinn, Andreas Vlachidis, and Marco Humbel (UCL), Shih-Pei Chen (Max Planck Institute), and Gerben Zaagsma (C²DH), offering an important way of keeping up to date with the methodological and theoretical state of the art in digital oral history. We invited speakers to present work on recent technological developments that may hold promise for digital oral history. In this way, the seminar series appeals to (digital) oral historians, digital humanists and scholars of the history of information, memory and knowledge systems.