Keynote Speakers > Eva Pfanzelter

Eva Pfanzelter

Unlocking the Past with Computational Methods: Evolving Digital Humanities for Historical Research

Bio

Eva Pfanzelter is an associate professor and Deputy Chair of the Department of Contemporary History, Chair of the Digital Humanities Research Center and Chair of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Philosophy and History – all at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Her research and teaching focus is on European and regional contemporary history, Holocaust, cultures of remembrance and politics of history, migration history, digital history / digital humanities.

Abstract

The intersection of Digital History and Computer Science is a fertile ground for innovation, yet many of the advances in Digital History remain underexplored by the computational community. This talk aims to bridge that gap by shedding light on key methods, tools, and questions that define contemporary Digital History but may be unfamiliar to those outside the field. While historians increasingly adopt computational techniques—such as text mining, network analysis, and GIS—their application requires not just technical skill but also deep contextual knowledge and sensitivity to historical complexities that go beyond data patterns. For example, historians deal with ambiguous, incomplete, and often biased sources. Digital historians have developed innovative approaches to process these irregularities, but these methods are still evolving and remain incomplete. Additionally, the ethics of digitizing sensitive materials, such as colonial archives or personal narratives, demand a level of care and nuance that extends beyond purely technical concerns. This talk will explore how Digital History leverages computational methods not just to automate analysis but to open new avenues for historical interpretation. It will also highlight collaborations between historians and computer scientists, where domain expertise in both fields enriches the development of algorithms and tools, offering richer insights into the past.