Virtual lecture series
A series of lectures organised by the Institute for the History of German Jews (Hamburg) and the Chair of Digital Humanities and Hybrid Educational and Communication Spaces at the University of Erfurt and Erfurt University of Applied Sciences
June – November 2026, Thursdays 13-14 CET, for registration and zoomlink: kontakt(a)igdj-hh.de
Organised by Nina Brolich (Erfurt), Helena Geibel (Hamburg), Anna Menny (Hamburg), Anna Neovesky (Erfurt)
Digitalisation and artificial intelligence are fundamentally transforming the way we research and understand the past. Through the automatic analysis of vast amounts of data, pattern recognition in texts and images, and the generation of content, new forms of knowledge production are emerging and our understanding of sources is changing. The use of AI requires new approaches to source criticism and an awareness of the limitations and power of algorithmic systems. This lecture series will examine various aspects: AI and Holocaust education, the potential of machine learning in analysing emotions in personal accounts of the Holocaust, the use of AI in structuring historical research data, and AI-generated images in the context of Jewish history and the Holocaust on social media. The guiding questions are: What new possibilities arise for knowledge production? How is our understanding of sources changing? What challenges and dangers arise? How are historical narratives changing, and how is our understanding of the past changing?
You can find the programme for the lecture series below.