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On this website we inform you about upcoming events and current information related to the Junior Professorship Digital Humanities.
Upcoming events
Theorie ist in den Digital Humanities weder abgeschlossen noch Beiwerk. Seit 2010 oszilliert der Diskurs zwischen methodologischem Pragmatismus und kritischer Erneuerung. Gegenwärtig provozieren vor allem KI-Systeme, wie Large Language Models, eine erneute Rückkehr zur Theoriearbeit. Der Vortrag kartiert die Rolle und Entwicklung der Theoriearbeit in den Digital Humanities und diskutiert zentrale Kontroversen um Evidenz, Reproduzierbarkeit und Verantwortung. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Betrachtung der vielfältigen Kontexte, in denen der Theoriebegriff verwendet wird. Dabei werden sowohl geisteswissenschaftliche als auch informatische, computerlinguistische und statistische Perspektiven berücksichtigt. Anhand von Fallstudien wird aufgezeigt, wie theoretische Annahmen die Forschungspraxis prägen.
This talk will be held in German and is part of the lecture series Digital Humanities im Fokus: Methoden, Anwendungen und Perspektiven.
Zoom-Link: Meeting ID: 630 4747 2241, Passwort: 430211
Past events
This paper explores the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) in understanding literary texts, specifically poetry, through a series of qualitative experiments. We define "understanding" in a way which allows to assess task-specific capabilities while avoiding anthropomorphism. Analyzing two German poems—one very well-known, one unknown—we assess nine textual aspects: meter, rhyme, assonance, lexis, phrases, syntax, figurative language, titles, and meaning. Three levels of interaction— general knowledge, expert knowledge, and abstraction and transfer transfer — guide our evaluation. Our results show LLMs excel in analyzing semantic aspects, including figurative speech, but struggle with formal elements like rhythm and sound. Performance differences exist across textual aspects rather than complexity levels. Notably, LLMs favor established interpretations over original insights and LLMs are relatively inflexible when it comes to shifting cultural perspectives unless explicitly prompted. Thus, we show the extent to which LLMs' performance covaries more with textual aspects and the extent to which it covaries with levels of task complexity.
This paper has been submitted to the conference track of JCLS. It has been peer reviewed and accepted for presentation and discussion at the 4th Annual Conference of Computational Literary Studies at Krakow, Poland, in July 2025.
Persons involved: Fotis Jannidis, Rabea Kleymann, Julian Schröter, Heike Zinsmeister
The number of degree programs in Digital Humanities is increasing, raising questions about curricular content. The explicit inclusion of theories and theory-oriented questions remains rare in these DH programs. While there is no unified definition of "theory" in DH, the DHd working group "Digital Humanities Theory" aims to identify relevant, classic, or widely-cited items in this field and organize them in a structured, modular format for self-study and, more importantly, for teaching purposes. In addition to classical texts, the selection also includes projects, reports, software, and datasets. The modules are designed to incorporate university-level didactic elements, such as questions and learning objectives. Access to this "Starter Kit for DH Theory" is intended to be multiperspectival. The poster consolidates the working group's activities on the starter kit to date, outlines the current progress, and invites discussion and participation in its further development.
The poster will be exhibited at the conference ‘Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum 2025’ from 3 to 7 March in Bielefeld.
Persons involved: Jonathan Geiger, Tessa Gengnagel, Philipp Hegel, Rabea Kleymann, Alexa Lucke
This talk focuses on examining the role and development of theory-building in the Digital Humanities, engaging with current debates and controversies in the field. Central to this discussion is the exploration of the diverse contexts in which the concept of "theory" is applied, encompassing perspectives from the humanities, computer science, computational linguistics, and statistics. Through case studies, the interplay of different theoretical approaches within specific research settings is analyzed. The talk aims not only to encourage reflection on theory-building in the Digital Humanities but also to propose new approaches for participatory and collaborative theory development.
The talk will be held in German and is part of the lecture series "Digital Humanities: Grundlagen, Methoden und Reflexion in interdisziplinärer Perspektive" at the University of Hamburg.
Persons involved: Rabea Kleymann, Julia Nantke, Heike Zinsmeister
This lecture is part of the workshop "(Generative) AI for Cultural and Text Data" held from November 4-5, 2024, in Weimar and will be conducted in collaboration with Julian Schröter, Munich. The workshop is organized by the DHd-AG Angewandte Generative KI in den Digitalen Geisteswissenschaften. The working group is dedicated to the research and application of generative artificial intelligence, particularly large language models (LLMs), in the digital humanities.
Persons involved: Rabea Kleymann, Julian Schröter among others.
