Our NFDI4DS Lecture Series continues with Lecture 10 on 23. September 2025 9:00 online.
Title: Towards an Ethical Strategy for Research Data Infrastructures. Digitalizing Archives of Historical Hate
This talk explores the ethical challenges of building research data infrastructures (RDIs) for digitalized archives that contain historically hateful content. While mass digitization and open access are often celebrated as unquestioned goals, they can conflict with the responsibility to prevent the circulation of harmful material and the reinforcement of stereotypes. I will suggest a way forward through a transepistemic approach—that is, a framework for enabling agreement and dialogue among the many stakeholders involved in the digitalization and research process, from archivists and scholars to legal experts, educators, and affected communities. Rather than relying only on technical fixes or legal restrictions, this approach combines organizational and pedagogical principles to shape ethically grounded and practically workable solutions. I will also address how algorithmic bias, the dual use of AI, and the tension between freedom and restriction complicate the picture. The aim is to show that we need to find a middle ground—one that both enables innovative research and safeguards against the reproduction and spread of hateful historical ideologies.
Speaker: Dr. Jan Krasni
Dr. Jan Krasni is a media studies scholar whose research focuses on hate discourses and online discrimination. His work explores the digitalization of historical archives and research libraries, examining how these processes intersect with broader paradigm shifts in the social sciences and humanities and with pressing questions around post-truth and the politics of knowledge.
Registration: Registration via https://events.hifis.net/event/3078/.