Merging Worlds: Where Cultures Converge and Data Meets Meaning
Chair: Mapes, Kristen

A Clash of Cultures and Topics: A Critical Perspective on Topic Modelling in the Case of Western Mathematics in Pre-modern China

Kessler, Florian

Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen Nuremberg, Germany

In this study, we use topic models to investigate the influence of Western mathematics in pre-modern China. We also critically examine how the instability of popular topic modelling approaches can undermine their reliability in acting as evidence for historical narratives.


Divergent Data Cultures in the Humanities

Woods, Nathan D.; O'Donnell, Daniel Paul; Bordalejo, Barbara

University of Lethbridge, Canada

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Unlike other examples of data intensive scholarship, digital and computational research in the humanities did not emerge from a shared ‘data culture.’ This paper presents a new model for understanding the trajectory of this development for the case of the humanities, premised upon the notion of ‘divergent data cultures.’


Mental Maps in EncycNet: Exploring Global Representation in a Historical, German Knowledge Graph

Hagen, Thora (1); Jannidis, Fotis (1); Witt, Andreas (2,3)

1: University of Würzburg; 2: University of Cologne; 3: Leibniz Institute for the German Language (IDS)

This abstract introduces the first openly published version of the EncycNet knowledge graph, which is built from historical German encyclopedias, and its potential for the digital humanities. Using EncycNet and Wikidata, we analyze how the representation of countries in encyclopedias has changed from the 19th century until today.