At the University of Osnabrück, Digital Humanities methods are not only applied in teaching and research in many areas, but are also developed, tested, and made application-ready. In order to further develop the consolidation and networking of these approaches and to discuss the question of what infrastructures the social sciences and cultural studies in particular need in the field of Digital Humanities for their work, the University Library has organized a series of events to invite scholars active in this field, representatives of university infrastructure institutions, and university administration to engage in dialogue. On May 12, a workshop with an accompanying poster exhibition already took place. The team from the Chair of Modern History and Historical Migration Research (Prof. Dr. Christoph Rass) also participated, several scholars from which have been contributing to discussions in an initiative group that would like to encourage the establishment of a dedicated DH center at UOS. In the poster exhibition that accompanied the workshop program, the NGHM working group was represented with contributions that presented the use of DH methods in research projects while simultaneously presenting ideas for expanding corresponding competencies in research and teaching. On September 30, a poster slam organized by the University Library followed. In this context, 13 posters were presented and discussed in short pitches to further advance dialogue between disciplines. Team NGHM contributed six presentations: Lukas Hennies presented the project “Deadly Forced Labor in Karya 1943” and the use of digital methods in this context. He particularly emphasized the involvement of students in the endeavor of digital documentation and prospection. Can digital methods help give migrantized people who are underrepresented in the existing museum and research landscape a stronger voice in telling their own history? This question is pursued by the transfer project “Reflexive Migration Research in the Museum” of CRC 1604 “Production of Migration,” whose poster Annika Heyen presented as part of the poster slam. Maik Hoops and Ahmet Celikten presented a poster on CRC 1604 – Production of Migration – Project A3 “»You are guest worker children!« Science, School and the Production of Figures of Migration.” In their pitch, they explained among other things the various methods for corpus analysis. Lea Horstmann explained the project “The Emsland Camps as Conflict Landscape in Transformation” on behalf of Imke Selle. Within the framework of this project, students also received the opportunity to directly participate in university research work through a project seminar and to test and create digital methods and products. Johannes Pufahl presented the completed transnational project Mapping the Co-presence of Violence and Memory in Belarus with a focus on the project’s results. These take the form of three digital public history formats, which address sites of violence in Belarus during the German occupation in World War II as well as their processing and memory culture using various digital methods. Prof. Dr. Christoph Rass advocated in his poster pitch for the introduction of a Digital Humanities certificate in order to address current technical innovations and potentials in teaching and enable students to acquire competencies in this area. After the successfully completed poster pitches, a winning pitch was also selected among the 13 contributors. Annika Heyen was able to win the best pitch for Team NGHM. Congratulations!
This article is an English translation of the original German post: Team NGHM@”Zukünftig digital?” Posterslam am 30. September in der UB Osnabrück