Call for Papers: Holocaust Research and Archives in the Digital Age

A special Issue of Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History  on  “Holocaust archives and research in the digital age”is to be published in June 2018. The publication is edited by Laura Brazzo (Fondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea, Milan) and Reto Speck (NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam and King’s College London).

“Digital history is directly engaged with the role new digital technologies can play in presenting and representing the past both in terms of the utilization of such technologies in scholarship and teaching, but also in considering new methodologies resulting from them.” [Tony Weller, 2013]

This special issue is inspired by the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) project (https://ehri-project.eu). EHRI was launched in 2010 and has attracted funding from the European Union’s FP7 and Horizon 2020 programmes. Based on a consortium of 24 partners – archives, libraries, museum and research institutions - EHRI’s mission is to create a digital infrastructure and a human network for Holocaust research. EHRI approaches this mission by integrating information about Holocaust-related archival institutions and their holdings in an online Portal; by facilitating the exchange of methodological knowledge and expertise through training events and expert workshops; and by developing new digital tools and methods to innovate Holocaust historiography.

The special issue will bring together contributions from within the EHRI consortium and from the wider community of Holocaust archives and research. All papers will deal with the digital transformation of Holocaust research and archives. Specific topics authors might want to address include, but are by no means restricted to:

• The role of Citizen Scientists and crowd-sourcing in opening up and enhancing Holocaust sources and in producing new insights
• The changing role of historians, archivists and the interested public in the production of knowledge in the digital age
• The practical application of new digital tools and methods to analyse and interpret Holocaust sources
• The transformative effect of digitization programmes and of the ubiquitous online availability of archival sources and finding aids on Holocaust research
• The likely long-term impact of digital approaches on Holocaust archives, historiography, memorialization and education
• Opportunities and challenges arising from the increasing standardization and quantification of Holocaust archives and research

Contributions may approach these and similar subjects from both practical or theoretical points of view, thereby providing both case studies showcasing current applications of digital approaches to Holocaust archives and research as well as offering critical reflections on how the digital currently interacts with the Holocaust and on how this interaction might develop in the future. The proposed special issue will thus provide an overview of the current landscape, highlight critical issues and open questions and trace the contours of the future of (digital) Holocaust research and archives.

Submissions:

Articles must be submitted anonymously (including footnotes and acknowledgements) in order to facilitate a double-blind peer review process.
A full title and an abstract (150 words) should be included on the first page.
When submitting an article, please include a covering letter that contains:
1) The full title of the article and the full name of the author(s) with current affiliation and address/phone/email details, plus a short biographical note;
2) An Author(s)’s statement confirming your agreement to the submission and that the article was not published before and is not currently being considered for publication by any other journal.
Article length: articles should be between 30,000 and 60,000 characters (footnotes included).

Style Guidelines:

http://www.quest-cdecjournal.it/submission.php

Deadlines:

30th of June 2017: submission of abstracts and CVs
31st of October 2017: submission of full articles
June 2018: publication

Contacts:

Abstracts and articles should be sent to:
laurabrazzo[at] cdec [dott] it (laurabrazzo.cdec.it)
reto [dott] speck[at] kcl [dott] ac [dott] uk