Bielefeld University, Germany

12–15 February 2024

Update: The deadline for applications has been extended to 20 October 2023.

Since 2019, the COST Action “Worlds of Related Coercions in Work (WORCK)” (CA18205) has been bringing together scholars from all over Europe and beyond scholars working on labour and coercion in different periods and regions to reconceptualise Labour History.

A key aspect of our network’s discussions revolves around how to utilise digital humanities methods both as a toolkit and as a means of facilitating international collaboration.  Stemming from these discussions, WORCK organises a Training School in computational history, hosted by the University of Bielefeld CRC 1288 “Practices of Comparing”, (https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/sfb/sfb1288/)  from February 12 to February 15, 2024.

The Training School will offer an in-depth introduction to digital methods, training in digital tools, as well as discussions about historical data and the opportunities offered by computational history for the study of social and labour history. The programme will include lectures, roundtables, “under the hood” presentations of how current research projects in the fields of social and labour history are incorporating digital methods, insights into ongoing initiatives by WORCK members, and “hands-on” sessions with specific software and languages (Python/R). Besides providing concrete training, the WORCK Training School is designed to contribute to the demystification of digital humanities, to help increase digital knowledge and autonomy, and to address the various challenges related to the implementation of digital methods in social history.

The Training School will bring together a small group of up to 30 students and researchers, and will thus require active participation (see “How to apply” below). Due to the limited number of available places, a selection of participants will be made by the organising committee. This selection will be based on motivation and engagement with social and labour history; it will ensure a mix of young and more advanced researchers. The expenses connected to the participation in the Training School (travelling and accommodation) will be reimbursed by COST.

How to apply?

The WORCK Training School is open to researchers in social and labour history, whatever their position and degree of advancement. Active participation is expected, applications will be composed of the following material:

  • A letter of motivation (max. 1,000 words), including information on your research interests (period, region, topic), what kind of sources you work with, and which questions you think digital methods could help you answer.
  • Curriculum Vitae

Who is eligible?

Participation can be funded for everybody affiliated with an institution in a COST Member Country or COST Near Neighbour Country. For more information on these categories, please consult https://www.cost.eu/about/cost-strategy/cost-global-networking/

If you wish to participate in the Training School, please send the documents listed above to Teresa Petrik (teresa.petrik@univie.ac.at) by 20 October 2023.

Find the Call as a PDF-file here: WORCK Training School 2_CfA