Rabea Kleymann: Data Diffraction: A Counternarrative to Integration for Digital Humanities Research

Vortrag im Rahmen der Konferenz Digital Humanities: Responding to Asian Diversity der Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations, 25.–29.7.2022

Mixed methods are firmly established in Digital Humanities (DH) scholarship. While this approach is understood as a research design adopted from social sciences, mixed methods seem to be an umbrella term for defining DH’s methodological framework in general. The use of computational procedures in DH is often regarded as a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. So far integration within mixed methods research is often discussed in a realm of technical challenges concerning data settings, standards and ontologies. Although data integration addresses epistemological and social issues of conformity and interoperability of research data for a global DH community.

This presentation argues that integration provides one device to explore questions of difference and diversification within DH scholarship. Therefore, promises, constraints and pitfalls of the “integration”-narrative, which seems to be deeply enfolded in mixed methods research, are described. The focus of attention will be on compatibilities as well as forms of inferences, which gain relevance manufacturing of knowledge within mixed methods research. Discussing mixed methods approaches in computational stylistics and ontologies, this presentation introduces data diffraction—a counternarrative presented by Uprichard and Dawney—as one complementary aim for dealing with different data settings.

Die Literaturwissenschaftlerin Rabea Kleymann ist wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin mit dem Projekt Diffraktive Epistemik: Wissenskulturen der Digital Humanities.