Digital History has proven remarkably resistant to definition: it is usually characterised either by reference to whatever technologies happen to be current, or as a loose set of practices — while some scholars reject the very attempt at definition altogether. This talk takes the opposite route and proposes a definition derived from theory, one that places neither practices nor technologies at the centre of the field, but the digital itself as its unifying core.
Drawing on a theory of the digital built around the concept of the allographic, the talk then spells out what such a definition entails: for retro-digitised sources and digital methods, for born-digital sources and the question of digital source criticism, and ultimately for what history itself becomes under the conditions of digitality — and what role falls to historians working in Digital History. Presenting work in progress, the paper is intended as an invitation to think Digital History further and as a contribution to the ongoing debate about the identity and future of the field.
Vortrag im Rahmen des Forschungskolloquiums und Ringvorlesung „Digital History“
Zeit: Mittwoch, 08. Juli 2026, 16-18 Uhr
Ort: Zoom-Konferenz (Zugang auf Anfrage oder via Mailingliste)
OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Digital History Berlin (Redaktion) (6. Juli 2026). Torsten Hiltmann: (Re-)Defining Digital History. The Allographic as a Theory of the Digital and Its Consequences for History. Digital History Berlin. Abgerufen am 19. Juli 2026 von https://doi.org/10.58079/16iv2