Would you like to participate in a short, intensive research project asking new research questions about Holocaust testimonies with digital methods?

The Helsinki Digital Humanities Hackathon is a chance to experience an interdisciplinary research project from start to finish within the span of 10 days. For researchers and students from computer science and data science, the hackathon gives the opportunity to test their abstract knowledge against complex real-life problems. For next year’s event, the theme of one of the groups will be oral testimonies of the Holocaust.

CLARIN and EHRI are looking for a person to help lead one of the groups as an expert in Holocaust testimony research for the event in 2025. The bursary will pay travel and subsistence expenses associated with the role up to a maximum of €2500.

This role is likely to suit an early-career researcher with a background and training in research in Holocaust studies, and with an interest in the possibilities and opportunities for the application of digital research methods in this field.

The event will be held in Helsinki 14-23 May 2025, and you will need to be present in person in Helsinki and participate fully each day in the Hackathon activities. In addition, you will need to participate in preparation and planning for the event, including a number of Zoom meetings to discuss iterations of finalizing the dataset to be used in the event, the research questions to be addressed, and the selection of the additional leaders with the right technical skills.

Information on the forthcoming and past hackathons can be found here: 

https://www.helsinki.fi/en/digital-humanities/helsinki-digital-humanities-hackathon

Full support will be offered by experts from CLARIN, EHRI and the Helsinki team to explain what is expected of you. Some more information is given below:

Data

A dataset of oral testimonies from Holocaust survivors from the collections of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum has been made available for use in the event. There are digital audio recordings, metadata and text transcripts. The procedure for planning the workshop is to design the group for the hackathon (including the domain expert, technical experts and students) based on the available data, considering what additional resources could be linked to the primary dataset etc. This is an iterative process and will help in exploring alternative implementation plans and ensuring we have the best strategy.

Research Questions

You will formulate preliminary research questions related to the main dataset, together in discussion with experts from EHRI and CLARIN, and with the Hackathon organizers. This will also be an iterative process to find the right research questions that fit with the people, datasets and tools.

Forming the group team

Once you have been introduced to the Hackathon organizers, they will begin selecting additional leaders to ensure the group has a complementary range of expertise. You should be an expert in the domain of Holocaust studies without needing advanced computational skills. They will assign someone with the required technical skillset, with at least one person in each group with respect to leadership that has prior expertise of our hackathons. We may even have up to three leaders (sometimes four) in a group, with others joining from Finland or the Hackathon team as needed. This will be one of four groups in the event, each working with different datasets and themes, and once the places have been filled for the regular Hackathon participants,  each will be assigned to one of the groups.

Scheduling

The iterative steps outlined above will be carried out for this and the other Hackathon themes via a series of Zoom meetings starting in January 2025 at the latest, and by February, we will begin preparing the information about the hackathon that goes to call for participants etc. You can refer to last year’s schedule as a reference here: 

https://www.helsinki.fi/en/digital-humanities/helsinki-digital-humanities-hackathon-2024-dhh24

Expenses

Up to €2500 expenses is available for travel and subsistence expenses incurred in attending the event. Expenses must be evidenced with receipts and the claim for reimbursement submitted before the end of May 2025 (i.e. immediately after the event). Expenses can include travel to Helsinki (including local transfers), hotel accommodation and some incidental expenses such as meals. 

No salary is offered for this role, and there will be no contract of employment associated with it, and there is no payment for time spent on planning or participating in the Hackathon.

As well as activities directly involved in the Hackathon itself, you will be asked to write a short blog posts for the CLARIN and EHRI websites, and there will be opportunities for other optional dissemination activities, further engagement with the ongoing series of workshops associated with the CLARIN-EHRI collaboration, and the possibility to play a role in further hackathons on similar lines to this one, to be held in the future in different locations.

Do you think this is a role for you? If so, please contact Martin Wynne at the University of Oxford by email at martin.wynne@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk and/or Michal Frankl frankl@mua.cas.cz