Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Studies in Digital History and Hermeneutics

Funded by: University of Luxembourg
Edited by: Andreas Fickers, Valérie Schafer, Sean Takats and Gerben Zaagsma

ISSN: 2629-4540

e-ISSN 2629-4559

Overview
Volumes

The series “Studies in Digital History and Hermeneutics” addresses key questions for historians in the digital age:

- how do digital infrastructures and technologies interfere in our practices of thinking, doing, and narrating history?

- what are the methodological and epistemological implications of using digital data and tools for historical interpretation and argumentation?

- what new historical questions can be asked when exploring the big data of the past?

In offering a platform for cutting edge scholarship in the emerging field of digital history and hermeneutics, the series aims at making a critical intervention in the field of digital humanities and introducing key debates and concepts of digital history to the historical community at large.

Topics

Book Open Access 2025

Doing Digital Film History

Concepts, Tools, Practices

Sarah-Mai Dang, Tim van der Heijden, Christian Gosvig Olesen

Volume 11 in this series

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How has the digital turn shaped the practices of film historical research and teaching? While computational approaches have been used by film historians since the 1960s and 1970s, the arrival and use of digital tools and methods in recent decades has fundamentally changed the ways we search, analyze, interpret, present, and so think and write about film history – from digital archival and curatorial practices, data-driven search, and analysis of film historical collections to the visualization and dissemination of film historical materials online. While film historians have increasingly embraced the new possibilities brought by digital technologies, their practical, epistemological, and methodological implications need further exploration. What opportunities does the digitization of film historical sources provide for film historians? What new questions can be raised by using digital methods? What new perspectives emerge from analyzing, interpreting, and visualizing film historical data at the levels of both “close” and “distant” – or “scalable” – reading and viewing? By focusing on the concepts, tools, and practices of digital film historiography, this edited volume aims to contribute to a better understanding and critical reflection on the changes and continuities of doing film history in the digital age.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111082486
ISBN:: 9783111082486
ISBN:: 9783111083056
ISBN:: 9783111081496
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Digital History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2024

Producing and Debating History

Historical Knowledge on Wikipedia

Petros Apostolopoulos, University of Luxembourg

Volume 10 in this series

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In 2021, the American Historical Association published a study on how the American public perceives and understands the past. Almost half of the respondents argued that they turn to Wikipedia to learn about history and acquire a historical understanding of the past. Wikipedia was ranked higher than other historical activities, such as “Historic site visit,” “Museum visit,” “Genealogy work,” “Social media,” “Podcast/radio program,” “History lecture,” and “History-related video game.” These findings combined with the appropriation of Wikipedia’s corpus by ChatGPT and Wikipedia’s partnership with the most central search engine in the digital world, Google, and other digital assistants, such as Siri and Alexa, make clear how crucial the role of Wikipedia in how the public learns about history and makes sense of the past is.

But how is historical knowledge produced on Wikipedia? How do Wikipedia editors engage with historical events of the past and transform the past into historical knowledge? Why do they decide to contribute to the production of history? By placing Wikipedia editors at the center of research inquiry and using multiple methodologies and different kinds of data, this book explores how historical knowledge is produced in one of the most central digital communities of knowledge, Wikipedia.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111069586
ISBN:: 9783111069586
ISBN:: 9783111069951
ISBN:: 9783111069234
Subject:: History
Subject:: Historical Periods
Subject:: Contemporary History since 1945
Subject:: Other Topics
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Topics in History, other
Subject:: Digital History
Subject:: Public History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2024

Online Virality

Spread and Influence

Valérie Schafer, Fred Pailler, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg National Research Fund

Volume 9 in this series

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The book Online Virality, edited by Valérie Schafer and Fred Pailler (C²DH, University of Luxembourg), aims to provide a comprehensive examination of online virality. It explores the many ways we can think about this modern phenomenon and analyse the circulation, reception, and evolution of viral born-digital content. Virality and content sharing always intertwine material, infrastructural, visual and discursive elements. This involves various platforms, stakeholders, intermediaries, social groups and communities that are constantly (re)defining themselves. Regulation, curation and content moderation politics, as well as affects and emotions (fears, humour, empathy, hatred…), are also at the core of online virality.

The publication offers an interdisciplinary overview on online virality by including different types of scientific inputs, such as precise case studies, various methodological approaches (including close and distant reading, visual studies, discourse analysis, etc.), as well as historical and socio-technical analyses. The book is organised around three main topics: Expressions and Genres; Mobilisations and Engagements; Circulation and Infrastructures.

The first part explores the semiotics of virality, the diverse and creative forms of expression, specific genres, the relation to other media, and the affective side of virality, such as using humour or provocation. The second part focuses on the political dimension of memes and viral content and their use in the context of controversy or political and ideological opposition. Finally, the third part delves into the often understudied but essential side of virality, by examining the role of platforms and their curation, in short, the infrastructural dimension of virality. These three parts allow us to question such fundamental notions linked to virality as, among others, circulation, reception, economy of attention, instrumentalisation and affect.

This volume brings together authors from various disciplines, including semiotics, history, information and communication sciences, computer science, digital humanities, media studies. In addition, the contributors approach the question via case studies that allow for a perspective that is not exclusively US and European-centred. Some chapters explore virality in Brazil, Chile, while the book also examines a wide variety of platforms (YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, video game platforms, etc.).

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111311371
ISBN:: 9783111311371
ISBN:: 9783111310350
ISBN:: 9783111311654
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Digital History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2024

Connected Histories

Memories and Narratives of the Holocaust in Digital Space

Eva Pfanzelter, Dirk Rupnow, Éva Kovács, Marianne Windsperger, University of Innsbruck, Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies, University of Luxembourg

Volume 8 in this series

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The World Wide Web (WWW) and digitisation have become important sites and tools for the history of the Holocaust and its commemoration. Today, some memory institutions use the Internet at a high professional level as a venue for self-presentation and as a forum for the discussion of Holocaust-related topics for potentially international, transcultural and interdisciplinary user groups. At the same time, it is not always the established institutions that utilise the technical possibilities and potential of the Internet to the maximum. Creative and sometimes controversial new forms of storytelling of the Holocaust or more traditional ways of remembering the genocide presented in a new way with digital media often come from people or groups who are not in the realm of influence of the large memorial sites, museums and archives. Such "private" stagings have experienced a particular upswing since the boom of social media. This democratisation of Holocaust memory and history is crucial though it is as yet undecided how much it will ultimately reinforce old structures and cultural, regional or other inequalities or reinvent them.

The “Digital space” as an arbitrary and limitless archive for the mediation of the Holocaust spanning from Russia to Brazil is at the centre of the essays collected in this volume. This space is also considered as a forum for negotiation, a meeting place and a battleground for generations and stories and as such offers the opportunity to reconsider the transgenerational transmission of trauma, family histories and communication. Here it becomes evident: there are new societal intentions and decision-making structures that exceed the capabilities of traditional mass media and thrive on the participation of a broad public.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111329154
ISBN:: 9783111329154
ISBN:: 9783111329208
ISBN:: 9783111328812
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Jewish History
Subject:: Holocaust
Subject:: Digital History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2024

Zoomland

Exploring Scale in Digital History and Humanities

Florentina Armaselu, Andreas Fickers, University of Luxembourg

Volume 7 in this series

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Despite a variety of theoretical and practical undertakings, there is no coherent understanding of the concept of scale in digital history and humanities, and its potential is largely unexplored. A clearer picture of the whole spectrum is needed, from large to small, distant to close, global to local, general to specific, macro to micro, and the in-between levels.

The book addresses these issues and sketches out the territory of Zoomland, at scale. Four regions and sixteen chapters are conceptually and symbolically depicted through three perspectives: bird’s eye, overhead, and ground view. The variable-scale representation allows for exploratory paths covering areas such as: theoretical and applicative reflections on scale combining a digital dimension with research in history, media studies, cultural heritage, literature, text analysis, and map modelling; creative use of scale in new digital forms of analysis, data organisation, interfaces, and argumentative or artistic expressions.

Zoomland provides a systematic discussion on the epistemological dimensions, hermeneutic methods, empirical tools, and aesthetic logic pertaining to scale and its innovative possibilities residing in humanities-based approaches and digital technologies.

Enter the Zoomland game here or watch the teaser!

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111317779
ISBN:: 9783111317779
ISBN:: 9783111317526
ISBN:: 9783111317915
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Digital History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2022

Digital History

Konzepte, Methoden und Kritiken Digitaler Geschichtswissenschaft

Karoline Dominika Döring, Stefan Haas, Mareike König, Jörg Wettlaufer, University of Luxembourg, Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, Deutsches Historisches Institut Paris

Volume 6 in this series

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Research and teaching in history have undergone profound changes within the scope of digitalization. This volume asks questions such as: What changes is digitalization making possible in the way that historical research is carried out and communicated today? What new objects, methods, and tools are available to researchers today and what research findings do they produce?

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110757101
ISBN:: 9783110757101
ISBN:: 9783110757149
ISBN:: 9783110756937
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Digital History
Subject:: Theories, Methods, and Auxiliary Sciences
Subject:: Methods
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2022

Jewish Studies in the Digital Age

Gerben Zaagsma, Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra, Miriam Rürup, Michelle Margolis, Amalia S. Levi, University of Luxembourg

Volume 5 in this series

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As in all fields and disciplines of the humanities, Jewish Studies scholars find themselves confronted with the rapidly increasing availability of digital resources (data), new technologies to　interrogate and analyze them (tools), and the question of how to critically engage with these developments. This volume discusses how the digital turn has affected the field of Jewish Studies. It explores the current state of the art and probes how digital developments can be harnessed to address the specific questions, challenges and problems that Jewish Studies scholars confront. In a field characterised by dispersed sources, and heterogeneous scripts and languages that speak to a multitude of cultures and histories, of abundance as well as loss, what is the promise of Digital Humanities methods--and what are the challenges and pitfalls?

The articles in this volume were originally presented at the international conference #DHJewish - Jewish Studies in the Digital Age, which was organised at the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) at University of Luxembourg in January 2021. The first big international conference of its kind, it brought together more than sixty scholars and heritage practitioners to discuss how the digital turn affects the field of Jewish Studies.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110744828
ISBN:: 9783110744828
ISBN:: 9783110744880
ISBN:: 9783110744699
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Jewish History
Subject:: Jewish History and Culture
Subject:: Digital History
Subject:: Jewish Studies
Subject:: Jewish History
Subject:: General Jewish History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2021

Digital Roots

Historicizing Media and Communication Concepts of the Digital Age

Gabriele Balbi, Nelson Ribeiro, Valérie Schafer, Christian Schwarzenegger, University of Luxembourg

Volume 4 in this series

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As media environments and communication practices evolve over time, so do theoretical concepts. This book analyzes some of the most well-known and fiercely discussed concepts of the digital age from a historical perspective, showing how many of them have pre-digital roots and how they have changed and still are constantly changing in the digital era. Written by leading authors in media and communication studies, the chapters historicize 16 concepts that have become central in the digital media literature, focusing on three main areas. The first part, Technologies and Connections, historicises concepts like network, media convergence, multimedia, interactivity and artificial intelligence. The second one is related to Agency and Politics and explores global governance, datafication, fake news, echo chambers, digital media activism. The last one, Users and Practices, is finally devoted to telepresence, digital loneliness, amateurism, user generated content, fandom and authenticity. The book aims to shed light on how concepts emerge and are co-shaped, circulated, used and reappropriated in different contexts. It argues for the need for a conceptual media and communication history that will reveal new developments without concealing continuities and it demonstrates how the analogue/digital dichotomy is often a misleading one.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110740202
ISBN:: 9783110740202
ISBN:: 9783110740288
ISBN:: 9783110739886
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Digital History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2023

Digitised Newspapers – A New Eldorado for Historians?

Reflections on Tools, Methods and Epistemology

Estelle Bunout, Maud Ehrmann, Frédéric Clavert, University of Luxembourg

Volume 3 in this series

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The application of digital technologies to historical newspapers has changed the research landscape historians were used to. An Eldorado? Despite undeniable advantages, the new digital affordance of historical newspapers also transforms research practices and confronts historians with new challenges. Drawing on a growing community of practices, the impresso project invited scholars experienced with digitised newspaper collections with the aim of encouraging a discussion on heuristics, source criticism and interpretation of digitized newspapers.

This volume provides a snapshot of current research on the subject and offers three perspectives: how digitisation is transforming access to and exploration of historical newspaper collections; how automatic content processing allows for the creation of new layers of information; and, finally, what analyses this enhanced material opens up.

‘impresso - Media Monitoring of the Past’ is an interdisciplinary research project that applies text mining tools to digitised historical newspapers and integrates the resulting data into historical research workflows by means of a newly developed user interface. The question of how best to adapt text mining tools and their use by humanities researchers is at the heart of the impresso enterprise.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110729214
ISBN:: 9783110729214
ISBN:: 9783110729719
ISBN:: 9783110729269
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Digital History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2022

Digital History and Hermeneutics

Between Theory and Practice

Andreas Fickers, Juliane Tatarinov, University of Luxembourg, Fonds National de la Recherche

Volume 2 in this series

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As a result of rapid advancements in computer science during recent decades, there has been an increased use of digital tools, methodologies and sources in the field of digital humanities. While opening up new opportunities for scholarship, many digital methods and tools now used for humanities research have nevertheless been developed by computer or data sciences and thus require a critical understanding of their mode of operation and functionality.
The novel field of digital hermeneutics is meant to provide such a critical and reflexive frame for digital humanities research by acquiring digital literacy and skills. A new knowledge for the assessment of digital data, research infrastructures, analytical tools, and interpretative methods is needed, providing the humanities scholar with the necessary munition for doing critical research. The Doctoral Training Unit "Digital History and Hermeneutics" at the University of Luxembourg applies this analytical frame to 13 PhD projects. By combining a hermeneutic reflection on the new digital practices of humanities scholarship with hands-on experimentation with digital tools and methods, new approaches and opportunities as well as limitations and flaws can be addressed.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110723991
ISBN:: 9783110723991
ISBN:: 9783110724073
ISBN:: 9783110723878
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Digital History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2021

Trading Zones of Digital History

Max Kemman, University of Luxembourg

Volume 1 in this series

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Digital history is commonly argued to be positioned between the traditionally historical and the computational or digital. By studying digital history collaborations and the establishment of the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History, Kemman examines how digital history will impact historical scholarship. His analysis shows that digital history does not occupy a singular position between the digital and the historical. Instead, historians continuously move across this dimension, choosing or finding themselves in different positions as they construct different trading zones through cross-disciplinary engagement, negotiation of research goals and individual interests.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110682106
ISBN:: 9783110682106
ISBN:: 9783111259055
ISBN:: 9783110681963
ISBN:: 9783110682250
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Digital History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg