projects

Habilitation project on Computational History of Science

In my habilitation project, I investigate computational methods for the history of science, examining early modern knowledge organisation resources through a range of computational methods and corpora. The project consists of three main strands.

1. The first focuses on language and dictionaries.
2. The second explores computer vision approaches for early modern technical compendia and handbooks.
3. The third investigates recipes as repositories of practical, embodied, and collective knowledge. This part involves the in silico (i.e. computationaly chemistry) replication of alchemical recipes.

The recently appeared Ambix special issue that I co-edited forms part of this broader research agenda.

computational history of science and knowledge

Computational Chemistry

In-silico (quantum/computational) chemical simulations have not been used on alchemical texts to date.

Detecting laboratory objects in early modern illustrations

Early modern technical handbooks increasingly draw on and re-use illustrations of laboratory equipment that are investigated using computer vision methods following the Distant Viewing paradigm.

Alchemical dictionaries and early modern lexicography

This project investigates the knowledge representation practices in early modern dictionaries through multiple computational approaches.

Mining historical recipe collections

The early modern period witnessed a boom in how-to books. So-called books of secrets were large compendia of recipes that could benefit greatly from being analysed through computational methods.

Processus Universalis

Investigating historical recipe groups through phylogenetics, text reuse detection, stylometry and process extraction.

critical digital humanities

Critical and Data-Centric AI

I argue that a Critical Computational Humanities needs to adopt Data-Centric AI (DCAI) as a paradigm. It also needs stronger standards for good scholarly practice in the age of AI.

Data Feminism

Growing out of the work of the Critical DH working group (formerly AG Empowerment), I have reflected on how the principles of Data Feminism can best be integrated into everyday DH practice.

Dataset Documentation, Auditing and Data Work

Data (work) shapes results, yet we don't document or even understand our datasets well enough. I argue for standardized documentation and auditing pracitces as well as properly valuing data work.

Working group Critical Digital Humanities

Within the working group formerly known as DHd AG Empowerment, which was rebranded this year as AG Critical Digital Humanities in 2026, I have engaged in research in critical digital humanities, including AI criticism, data gaps, data feminism, and related topics.

book projects

Alchemical Laboratories. Texts, Practices, Material Relics

The edited volume offers a broad and multidisciplinary view of the early modern alchemical laboratory.

Ambix Special Issue on “Computational Approaches to the Histories of Alchemy and Chemistry”

This special issue negotiates the opportunities, challenges and responsibilities involved in using computational methods for historical research.

Digital History of Science and Knowledge

The edited volume aims to highlight the specific ways in which digital, computational, and AI-based methods can be applied to sources from the history of science and knowledge.

alchemy

Alchemical ciphers

In 2021, I was involved in the decryption of a sophisticated alchemical cipher in a shared notebook by John and Arthur Dee.

Aurum Potabile

Much like contemporary AI, potable gold was a highly contested preparation in the early modern period. It was by no means a single, clearly defined product but rather a marketing label applied to a wide range of medicinal preparations, whose chemical compositions could differ substantially.

Viatorium

German translation and chemical commentary on Michael Maier’s Viatorium (1618)

past

Annotating regests

I annotated 1,162 regests of medieval charters for Gallia Pontificia online during an internship at DHIP.

GRaF

Graz Repository of Ancient Fables

Spectators

My first DH job was as a student assistant in the Moralische Wochenschriften project where I worked with XML and XSLT.