The Integrative Potential of Epistemic Virtues for the Digital Humanities

Perspectives from the history and philosophy of science have helped conceptualizing knowledge production in the digital humanities (DH). In the laboratory setting, the concept of the trading zone has proved to be fruitful. We aim to proceed beyond the laboratory setting and embrace the heterogeneity of DH scholarship, focusing on the setting of the intercultural contact zone. Where different experimental cultures meet, knowledge production is characterized by the crucial role of go-betweens, by partially diverging interests, and often by unchecked power differentials. We hold that it is especially in these situations that epistemic virtues provide orientation.

This workshop gathered an international group of scholars from fields including linguistics, literary studies, history, and philosophy in order to exchange on the integrative potential of epistemic virtues for DH scholarship. Including researchers from Japan is especially promising since many of them are acutely aware of developments in the West while the opposite is true only seldomly. While this does not result in their position being weaker, their participation may help bring out some general phenomena more clearly.

Programme

January 26 (Thursday)

Welcome lunch

Session 1 (from 14:00)

Welcome address

Franz Waldenberger (German Institute of Japanese Studies, Director)

Introductory talks

Andreas Fickers (C²DH Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History)

Harald Kümmerle (German Institute for Japanese Studies)

Introductions

Short coffee break

Kenji Ito (Kyoto University)

Extrapolating Objectivity: Epistemic Virtues and Contact Zones

Group work

Dinner

January 27 (Friday)

Session 2 (from 10:00)

Monica Berger (New York City College of Technology, CUNY)

The Politics of Open Access and the Decolonization of Knowledge

Anita Lucchesi (C²DH Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History)

The Hermeneutics of Practice

Short coffee break

Harald Kümmerle (German Institute for Japanese Studies)

Enabling Epistemic Justice through Infrastructure: A Case Study From the History of Mathematics in Japan

Lunch

Session 3 (from 14:00)

Anat Ben-David (Open University of Israel)

Conflating Evidence with Simulation: a Critique of Web Archives as Media of Verification

Alan Liu (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Infrastructure as Epistemic Value

Short coffee break

Antonia von Schöning (Humboldt University Berlin)

Exactitude and Accountability: Ideals, Tools, Practices

Group work

Dinner

January 28 (Saturday)

Session 4 (from 10:00)

Emmanuel Ngué Um (University of Yaounde I)

Epistemic Values of a Digital Epistemic Space in African Linguistics

Asanobu Kitamoto (ROIS-DS Center for Open Data in the Humanities / National Institute of Informatics)

Epistemic Virtues in the Age of AI, Open Science, and Digital Humanities

Short coffee break

Group discussion

Lunch

Optional excursion