Description, Themes & Objectives
This winter school is designed for beginners, though participants of all experience levels are welcome! The winter school consists of 3 consecutive days in December (15-17 December 2026) and one final day in January (19 January 2027).
Digital Humanities have become essential tools for modern historians. The methods employed in this field are particularly effective for interpreting and presenting historical data in innovative ways. This winter school introduces two approaches that are especially useful for cultural historians. Participants will learn to apply distant reading techniques using R and conduct spatial analysis with QGIS. It offers a hands-on opportunity to experiment with and reflect on the use of textual and spatial data. We will work with a range of textual corpora and cultural datasets (e.g., travel guides) to address your research questions.
In the realm of distant reading, we will cover core methods such as sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and distributional semantics. Participants will also be introduced to the spatial humanities, combining theoretical perspectives with practical applications of GIS. You will learn how to build spatial databases and display data on historical maps.
The winter school includes lectures, seminars, and personalized assignments created by experts in text mining, GIS, and data visualization. By the end of the course, you will know how to explore, analyze, and visualize large datasets. You will also be able to critically reflect on how ‘going digital’ enhances, alters, or challenges your practice as a historian.
