About Programme Lectures and Workshops Venue Registration Gallery

Lectures

Numbers and Networks: Between Quantitative History and Digital Humanities

Claire Lemercier

The use of digital technologies in historical research has a long history — or, rather, two long histories. Quantitative history was born from interactions with social sciences (sociology, economics, geography, etc.) and statistics, whereas digital history, a part of digital humanities, evolved from meetings between humanists and computer scientists. In both traditions, the substantive interest in social ties and relationships, on the one hand, and the attraction to network visualizations, on the other hand, have been steadily increasing since the 2000s. Yet historical network research is still not mainstream. This lecture aims at clarifying its dual lineage, which may be a source of puzzlement (when vocabularies don't match or when software offers proliferate) but also of mutual enrichment, opening many possibilities of analysis. It pleads for a firmly historical engagement with network methods, i.e. one that remains rooted, whatever the tools used, in source criticism and historical questions.

Claire Lemercier is a research professor of history at CNRS, based in Paris (France). She is the author, with Claire Zalc, of Quantitative Methods in the Humanities. An Introduction (University of Virginia Press, 2019). A modern historian of France, specializing in the history of justice, work, and commerce, she has been practicing and teaching quantitative history, and especially network analysis, for ca. 25 years, happily learning from sociologists, archaeologists, and many others along the way. Most of her introductory pieces on network analysis are available here, along with completely unrelated publications.

Fragments from the Past: the Computational Study of Missing Records

Gabor Mihaly Toth

Missing records are a common challenge in historical scholarship. At some point in their careers, almost all historians encounter this issue, regardless of the periods or sub-fields they study. Over the last three decades, statisticians, literary scholars, and some historians have tackled the problem of missing records. They began using complex computational and mathematical methods to reconstruct lost information. This lecture will explore this emerging approach in historical scholarship. It will demonstrate how studies of incomplete information in science and technology have influenced the historical examination of missing records. Using several recent case studies, the lecture will present recent findings based on the computational analysis of missing information.

Gabor Mihaly Toth is a research scientist at the Center for Contemporary and Digital History at the University of Luxembourg. He is the principal investigator of VOICES, a DFG and FNR funded consortium studying the multimodal memory of the Holocaust. After completing his PhD in history at the University of Oxford, he taught digital humanities at the University of Passau. In 2016, he moved to the United States and worked as a researcher at the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC, as well as at Yale and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Workshops

Reading Code That Reads Text: An Introduction to Python

Daniel Ihrmark

During this workshop, we will focus on understanding how a code script operates and on how we can think about tasks we intend to carry out through programming. We will be using Named-Entity Recognition as an example, and will together explore a script that finds names, places, and other things in a text. After the workshop, attendees will have an understanding of how Python code scripts operate and have an initial understanding of core concepts of code reading. We will also have the opportunity to make small alterations to the script in order to further explore how it all goes together.

While we will work with the same text file together as a starting point, you are very welcome to bring your own text to explore during the workshop. If you have a text in mind, please try to bring it in a .txt file format.

Daniel Ihrmark is a senior lecturer of Digital Humanities at Linnaeus University, Sweden. His Ph.D. project has dealt with the implementation of digital tools within language teaching, especially within the realm of second language learner diagnostics in English as an additional language. He has also performed research on the stylistic development of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway using digital methods and has a keen interest in 1920s American fiction and the ‘lost generation’. The work on Ernest Hemingway has focused on the author’s language development over the course of his career and has been published in The Hemingway Review. Recent work on F. Scott Fitzgerald includes a comparative analysis of Swedish language translations of the novel Tender is the Night. Ihrmark’s work in digital methods has focused on how digital tools and techniques can be made more accessible to researchers in the traditional humanities.

Network Analysis for Humanists

Giovanni Pietro Vitali

This course is designed to introduce participants to the fundamental concepts of network analysis. It is structured into three main sections, progressively guiding learners from basic examples to practical application using Gephi, a network visualization tool.

Examples of Network Analysis – this section provides an introduction to network analysis through real-world examples. Participants will explore various types of data visualization applied to network structures.

Preparing Your Data – data preparation is a crucial step in network analysis. This part covers formatting data for visualization and ensuring its usability in network modeling.

Building Your Own Network – a hands-on tutorial on creating a network using Gephi. Participants will learn how to visualize and analyze network structures through the software.

Giovanni Pietro Vitali is Associate Professor in Cultural History and Digital Humanities at Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University – Paris-Saclay University. Previously he was Marie Curie Research Fellow at University College Cork in collaboration with the University of Reading and New York University. His MSCA project, Last Letters from the World Wars: Forming Italian Language, Identity and Memory in Texts of Conflict, dealt with a linguistic and thematic analysis of the last letters of people sentenced to death during the First and the Second World Wars. From 2014 to 2018, he worked in France as a lecturer of Italian Studies at the University of Lorraine and the University of Poitiers. In 2018 he became an associate researcher at University of Oxford where he is the Digital Humanities advisor of the Prismatic Translation project.

Using LLMs in Humanities Research via API

Valdis Saulespurēns & Anda Baklāne

In this workshop, participants will learn how to access large language models via API and utilize them for bulk data analysis using Python. Through practical examples, we will explore prompt engineering techniques for tasks such as concept mining and named entity recognition in textual data. Additionally, we will examine challenges associated with historical digitized texts, including optical character recognition (OCR) errors, which may affect compatibility with language models. Participants will gain insights into how these models can be leveraged for error correction and translation, enhancing the usability of imperfect textual data.

The workshop is designed for researchers, data analysts, and professionals in text analysis, digital humanities, and computational linguistics. Only a basic familiarity with Python is required, which can be gained by attending introductory workshops at the summer school or reviewing the provided preparatory materials.

Valdis Saulespurēns works as a researcher and developer at the National Library of Latvia. Additionally, he is a lecturer at Riga Technical University, where he teaches Python, JavaScript, and other computer science subjects. Valdis has a specialization in Machine Learning and Data Analysis, and he enjoys transforming disordered data into structured knowledge. With more than 30 years of programming experience, Valdis began his professional career by writing programs for quantum scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Before moving into teaching, he developed software for a radio broadcast equipment manufacturer. Valdis holds a Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Latvia. When not working or spending time with his family, Valdis enjoys biking and playing chess, sometimes even at the same time.

Anda Baklāne is a researcher and curator of digital research services at the National Library of Latvia. She teaches Introduction to Digital Humanities and Digital Social Sciences and Text Analysis and Visualization courses at the University of Latvia. Anda holds a master’s degree in philosophy and a PhD in literary theory. Her research interests include Latvian contemporary literature, metaphor, models, distant reading, and academic data visualization.

Digital Mapping for Humanists

Giovanni Pietro Vitali

This course is designed to introduce participants to the fundamental concepts of digital mapping for humanists. It is structured into three main sections, progressively guiding learners from basic IT skills to hands-on mapping using Carto, a web-based mapping platform.

Fundamental IT Skills – digital mapping requires a broad set of technical skills. This section covers the most commonly used programming languages, file formats, applications, and software necessary for working with digital maps.

Preparing Your Data – a crucial step in mapping is the creation and formatting of datasets. This section focuses on how to structure and organize data for use in mapping tools.

Building Your Own Map – a hands-on tutorial on creating custom maps using Carto. Participants will learn how to visualize spatial data effectively.

Carto platform: https://carto.com/

Giovanni Pietro Vitali is Associate Professor in Cultural History and Digital Humanities at Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University – Paris-Saclay University. Previously he was Marie Curie Research Fellow at University College Cork in collaboration with the University of Reading and New York University. His MSCA project, Last Letters from the World Wars: Forming Italian Language, Identity and Memory in Texts of Conflict, dealt with a linguistic and thematic analysis of the last letters of people sentenced to death during the First and the Second World Wars. From 2014 to 2018, he worked in France as a lecturer of Italian Studies at the University of Lorraine and the University of Poitiers. In 2018 he became an associate researcher at University of Oxford where he is the Digital Humanities advisor of the Prismatic Translation project.

Unlock every doc! Using Transkribus

Annemieke Romein

Discover the power of Transkribus, an AI-driven system originally developed through EU funding that revolutionizes handwritten text recognition. This workshop introduces both fundamental and advanced features of this essential tool for researchers, archivists, and students. Participants will gain hands-on experience with the complete Transkribus workflow: uploading documents, applying existing recognition models, enhancing transcriptions, performing manual layout analysis, creating custom models trained on your specific handwriting styles, and exporting processed files.

Please bring at least five pages of documents (samples available if needed). By the workshop's end, you'll navigate Transkribus confidently, transforming historical handwritten documents into searchable, accessible digital text — significantly reducing the time and expertise traditionally required for paleographic analysis.

Content of this workshop:

- uploading documents on the server

- perform the simple workflow within Transkribus (application of existing models)

- alter and enhance the transcriptions (from the simple workflow)

- learn how to do manual layout analysis

- how to create a model for your material (advanced workflow)

- and of course: how to export your files!

Annemieke Romein is a teacher, an early modern (legal) historian by training, and a digital historian by choice. She works at the HAICu-project at the Technical University of Twente (Enschede, the Netherlands). She combines in-depth historical research with the practical application of digital tools such as automatic text recognition, automatic meta-dating, and ontologies/ linked data. In 2023, she was elected (honorary) community director of READ-COOP to represent the members and users on the Board of Directors. She has been a volunteer tutor in many workshops, webinars, and training sessions, as she strongly believes in the Transkribus motto: unlock the written past together.

Reflection and Support Sessions

Haralds Matulis

There will be five Reflection and Support (RS) sessions throughout the summer school: an introductory session on the first day, three daily reflection sessions, and a final reflection session on the last day.

This practice of daily reflection was developed in previous BSSDH editions (2023, 2024) and has proven to be a crucial complement to technical training. RS sessions are designed to help integrate the learned DH tools and methods into participants’ own research processes.

The approach emphasizes horizontal, peer-to-peer learning: in small groups, participants share challenges, tips, and experiences in applying methods. To make it accessible to everyone, regardless of technical background, a shared Google Doc will be used for collaboratively documenting reflections, solutions, and workflows.

These sessions provide space for feedback, process-sharing, and well-being check-ins, and help adapt the pace and structure of the program if needed.