Header image: Erste Promotion einer Frau (Elsa Neumann, 1872–1902) an der Universität Berlin 1899. Engraving of drawing by Ewald Thiel.

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Data as Resource: Epistemologies, Practices, Politics

Etienne Benson
Alfred Freeborn
Christine von Oertzen

Information

Course Type
SE
Semester
SoSe 2025
Location
Georg47, 0.09
SWS
2
Start
Day
Block
Registration
This course will be taught in English. It is open to advanced Master students of all three Berlin universities and will be taught together with Dr Etienne Benson (MPIWG) and Dr Alfred Freeborn (MPIWG), and in cooperation with the Museum for Natural History Berlin. The seminar is part of the curriculum of the International Max Planck Research School “Knowledge and its Resources.” Students who wish to participate please apply with a short motivation email to Christine von Oertzen (oertzenc@hu-berlin.de).
E-Mail
oertzenc@hu-berlin.de

Details

Dates:
April 23 (Wednesday): 2-4pm, HU-CAS Applied Humanities (Angewandte Geisteswissenschaften), Georgenstraße 23, 6th floor, seminar room.
May 14 (Wednesday): 2-6pm, HU-CAS Applied Humanities (Angewandte Geisteswissenschaften), Georgenstraße 23, 6th floor, seminar room.
June 4 (Wednesday): 2-6pm, HU-CAS Applied Humanities (Angewandte Geisteswissenschaften), Georgenstraße 23, 6th floor, seminar room.
June 13 (Friday): 9am-6pm Museum for Natural History, Berlin, Invalidenstraße 43, 10115 Berlin (Entrance Archive) https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/de/museum/besuch-planen.
June 14 (Saturday): 10am-1pm, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Seminar room (215), Dept. Knowledge Systems and Collective Life https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/de/institut/anfahrt.

 

Description

“Data” and large datasets have become crucial resources for knowledge production over the past two hundred years. Data-driven approaches have changed dramatically the ways in which we have come to understand our lives and bodies, the fortune of our societies, and the objects of scientific research: as bits stored electronically on digital computers and in cloud infrastructures. This seminar combines expertise from media studies, history of science, and history of medicine to discuss the material practices, epistemologies, and politics as they become manifest in data collection, data mining, and data visualization. We will focus on the emergence of the concepts, media, and practices that have informed data-driven methods as a means to understand and manage the world around us; the impact of these developments in big data approaches and evidence-based medicine; and the politics of data and the environment. A one-day excursion to the Museum of Natural History will complement our readings and introduce us to the intricacies of manual and digital data management of the museum’s large collections.