CLARIAH Summer School 2025

From June 30 to July 2, 2025, CLARIAH will host its annual summer school in Digital Heritage and Humanities to be held at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. The purpose of the summer school is to familiarise participants - from advanced MA students to experienced researchers - with digital heritage and humanities approaches that are broadly applicable in various fields; history, heritage studies, oral history, media studies and the social sciences. Making use of the numerous historical datasets, cultural heritage collections and archives that have been made available via the Dutch Arts & Humanities infrastructure CLARIAH, summer school participants gain experience with different tools and approaches (both qualitative and quantitative), and learn how to address broader societal questions and research questions of their own using these resources. Available datasets and collections include broadcast and film collections, oral history collections, newspapers and cultural heritage datasets. You can find an overview of available resources in ineo and one for audiovisual collections in the Media Suite.

Through plenary lectures and discussions, participants become familiar with shared interdisciplinary concerns in Digital Heritage and Humanities research. In conjunction with this, participants deepen their knowledge of how to use digital collections, datasets and tools in their research by participating in one of three thematic strands of their choice under guidance by experts. Participants can choose from one of the three following thematic strands (places are limited and will be distributed on a first come first served basis):

• Applications of Linked Data in Heritage and Humanities
• Audiovisual Collections and Media Analysis
• (Cultural Heritage) Research Data and Ethical, Legal and Social Issues (ELSI)

At the end of the summer school, you will know how to work with large datasets, collections and digital tools in your research and reflect critically on the ways in which they may change or challenge your own practice. For more details on the summer school’s individual strands please see the descriptions below.

Thematic Strands CLARIAH Digital Humanities and Heritage Summer School

• Applications of Linked Data in Heritage and Humanities
  Strand Leader(s): Dr. Richard Zijdeman (IISG/VU/University of Stirling)
  • Abstract : As cultural heritage institutions increasingly turn to linked data approaches for reimagining access and connecting digitised collections, knowing how to work with linked data becomes a critical skill. This strand introduces participants to working with linked data based on the demographic, social, and economic history datasets made available by heritage and research institutes. The datasets cover diverse topics such as the civil registers, commodities, environment and labor, social and economic inequality, and individual and collective action. Following the guiding principles of the Network of Digital Heritage (NDE), we will guide you through the basic concepts of Linked Open Data. No prior knowledge of Linked Data is required.
  • Topics, tools and skills that will be covered in this strand include
    • Why Linked Data?
    • Linked Data on the Web and how to use (‘query’) it
    • Creating Linked Data yourself with basic tooling
    • Creating Linked Data with Python
    • Reusing vocabularies and data models
    • Publishing Linked Data
      
      
• Audiovisual Collections and Media Analysis
  Strand Leader(s): Dr. Christian Olesen (UvA)
  • Abstract: In recent decades, audiovisual collections have become increasingly significant resources for a broad variety of fields involving historical, archive-based research and media analysis. Yet, because of their time-based, multimodal, and often materially heterogeneous nature, audiovisual collections can be challenging to navigate, analyze, and incorporate into research projects. Working with the audiovisual collections and tools made available in the Media Suite research environment, in this strand you learn how to devise search strategies to find your way through different types of metadata descriptions and data enrichments, to link and analyze audiovisual resources and to work with digital tools for close content analysis. The Media Suite provides access to many audiovisual collections from among others the NISV, Eye Filmmuseum, DANS Oral History Collections, IISG and the House of Representatives of The Netherlands, and facilitates different types of analysis: from distant reading and viewing to close analysis. During the summer school, you will create, enrich and annotate your own corpus following your own research interest.
  • Topics, tools and skills that will be covered in this strand include:
    • Video annotation and Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA)
    • Searching and filtering different types of archival metadata
    • Corpus building: saving and connecting items from different collections in your own online user space
    • Basic approaches to visualizing patterns in metadata

• (Cultural Heritage) Research Data and Ethical, Legal and Social Issues (ELSI)
  Strand Leaders: Dr. Liselore Tissen (LEI) & Dr. Sabrina Sauer (RUG)
  • Abstract: This strand introduces you to key practical and conceptual aspects of working with research data focusing on Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (ELSI). In recent years the ability to collect, process, and share research data responsibly with among other affected communities, data privacy or sustainability in mind, has become key for students and researchers at all levels, whether in the context of individual or collective research projects or applications. In this strand, you will learn to develop strategies for your (cultural heritage) research data, attending to key concepts of ELSI, while also being introduced to principles of approaches such as FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics).
  • Topics, tools and skills that will be covered in this strand include:
    • Risk assessment for (cultural heritage) research data based on ELSI concepts
    • Development of data management plans for research projects/applications
    • Approaches to depositing and sharing your data in relevant repositories

Registration

Registration will open in March 2025, and an announcement of the registration form will be circulated soon. In the meantime, feel free to get in touch with Dr. Christian Olesen at c.g.olesen@uva.nl for any inquiries.

Note: This is a preliminary programme and description, details may change.