On 3 and 4 April we met for our fourth meeting in Salzburg. The motto of the thematic meeting was “Interface Medieval Studies” and it included public and hybrid keynotes and spotlights as well as internal exchange and discussions of the network members and the invited guests.
The meeting began with a keynote by Andrea Rapp. She talked about the history of German medieval studies and its encounter with digitality offering an extensive basis and stimuli for discussion for further exchange about medieval studies. Following this presentation, Aglaia Bianchi, Alan van Beek, Karoline Döring and Peter Färberböck contributed short spotlight talks. Aglia Bianchi began with a spotlight about tools of science communication and the question about the way to communicate science. Alan van Beek offered insight into science communication via Twitter and TikTok. Then, Karoline Döring talked about blogging as a form of science communication. Peter Färberböck ended the spotlight presentations with a insight view into the topic of content managing for medievalists. The following discussion revealed that science communication should already be considered and included in project proposals.The common opinion was that every medievalist has to find his/her own medium for science communication to effectively and inspiringly communicate scientific work and results.
The second part of the first day only included network members and invited guests. Isabella Nicka, Georg Vogeler and Lina M. Zangerl began with an open panel discussion, which provided the network members with perspectives from different research disciplines – art history, history as well as library and information science – on the topic “interface medieval studies” and digitality in medieval studies. The following discussion made apparent that the term “interface” is already ambiguous. Afterwards, the network members talked about the editorship of a volume for the journal “Das Mittelalter” with the topic “interface medieval studies”. At the moment, the call for this volume is in preparation.
The 4 April began with a keynote by Julianne Nyhan. Her presentation focused on her work in the Sloane Lab and the topic of data as collections, especially with regard to the absence of data and biases in dealing with different sources and the resulting possibilities. Subsequently, the network members formulated take-aways of the meeting and discussed future network activities. Lastly, the new interface of the MHDBDB was presented and tested by the network members in a user acceptance test.
The next thematic meeting #5 method critique will take place on October 4 and 5 at the University of Stuttgart.
Detailed conference report:
Alan Lena van Beek and Luise Borek: Workshop “Schnittstelle Mediävistik” im Rahmen des DFG-Netzwerks ”Netzwerk Offenes Mittelalter” zu Linked Open Data, in: Mittelalter. Interdisziplinäre Forschung und Rezeptionsgeschichte, 18. Mai 2023. https://mittelalter.hypotheses.org/30356.
