Fellow Workshop: Digital Methods in the History of Democracy

7-8 May 2026 | University of Göttingen | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum (KWZ), Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen
Organisation: Hugo Bonin, Xev Martens, Benjamin Möckel

The workshop “Digital Methods in the History of Democracy: A Hands-on Workshop for Students and Early Career Researchers” aims to introduce participants, in a practice-oriented and collaborative manner, to digital methods, tools, and source collections relevant to the historical study of democracy . The focus lies on the joint application and critical discussion of digital research approaches with the goal of identifying new thematic fields and research questions for the history of modern democracies.

The history of democracy in its various forms offers particular potential for digital research. Extensive and readily accessible digitised source collections—such as parliamentary minutes, electoral statistics, party programs, and contemporary newspapers—as well as structured datasets enable scholars to revisit classic questions in the history of democracy using new methodological approaches. Practices of political participation, institutional decision-making processes, and public discourses can thus be analysed with greater systematic breadth.

At its core, the workshop combines tried and tested digital methods from corpus linguistics to more recent tools (such as word models and LLMs) with qualitative research questions. The aim is to reflect on digital methods as an integral component of historical research and interpretation, rather than treating them as purely technical tools. The workshop combines short introductory inputs, hands-on working sessions, and opportunities for discussion and exchange regarding participants’ own research ideas.

The workshop is organised by Dr Hugo Bonin and PD Dr Benjamin Möckel in cooperation with external experts in the field of Digital Humanities. The working languages of the workshop are German and English.