Our mission
Since the 1990s, the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Graz has continuously built up special expertise in the application of digital methods in humanities subjects. One expression of this was the founding of the Center for Information Modelling (ZIM) in 2008, which has been working successfully ever since and is prominently represented in the relevant international umbrella organizations and European infrastructures, as well as in the national research landscape in the field of digital humanities (DH). The curriculum of the Master's degree program "Digital Humanities", which has been offered since the winter semester 2017, is also based on an initiative of the Center. The University of Graz has thus established itself nationally and internationally as a pioneer in this field.
Internationally, digital methods in the humanities have since been transformed from a field of experimentation into an independent discipline known as "Digital Humanities ", as can be seen from the list of professorships established in German-speaking countries alone.
In 2015, the University of Graz advertised the first Austrian professorship for Digital Humanities - also on the basis of the successful evaluation of the ZIM 2012/13 - initially for a fixed term and filled it with a permanent professorship in 2021. In parallel to this permanent appointment - as mentioned at the beginning - ZIM has developed the first Master's degree program in Digital Humanities in Austria, which has been open to students since 2017. The students come from Austria and abroad, and the program is very attractive for students, not least because of the highly sought-after graduate profile on the job market.
In addition, ZIM has established a research infrastructure that performs an essential function for digitally supported research, not only at the Faculty of Humanities: With the help of the research repository and research environment GAMS (Geisteswissenschaftliches Asset Management System), the research results of a steadily growing number of projects from the Faculty, from Austria and from international partners are made available on a long-term basis. This is partly due to the fact that the faculty provided the center with staff on permanent contracts in the founding years, so that not only research could be advanced and projects implemented, but also the maintenance and further development of the infrastructure was permanently guaranteed.
It was a logical continuation of this sustainable policy of the Faculty of Humanities to transform the temporary center into a department in 2019, whose tasks are as follows
- Research into the effects of digitalization on issues, methodological approaches and knowledge processes in the humanities as well as the use of digital methods on culture and society
- Collaboration on a digitally supported research culture in the humanities, in particular the maintenance and further development of the logistical and technical infrastructure (GAMS) for the long-term availability of digital research results from the humanities
- Training the general social and academic need for young researchers in the field of digital humanities