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.

At DHd 2023, the working group organised a workshop on data feminism (Lang et al., 2023) , the results of which were subsequently reported in blog posts published in both English (Borek et al., 2023) and German (Borek et al., 2023). At the same conference, we co-organised a panel (Gengnagel et al., 2023) and also co-organised a panel at the international DH2023 conference in Graz that same year (Borek et al., 2023). I further represented the working group in a panel on failure in DH (Wuttke et al., 2023) that was reported on here (Wuttke et al., 2024). Our longer-term engagement with data feminism and (the gender) data gap(s) culminated in the publication of a *ZfdG* working paper on data feminism in 2026 (Lang & Suárez Cronauer, 2026). Complementing this work, we published a more focused study on the gender data gap in the *Computational Humanities Research* journal: In the article, “Dataset Audits for Mitigating Data Gaps,” we propose the dataset audit as a practical strategy for identifying and addressing data gaps while discussing the gender data gap more broadly (missing reference) . Preliminary research into the topic had examined dataset documentation practices (Lang, 2025). Following this extended focus on data feminism, the current projects of the working group are increasingly turning towards the study of data work and its influence on processes of knowledge production (Gengnagel & Lang, 2026).

References

2026

Beyond Data Feminism: Towards Ethical Data Work in the (Digital) Humanities

Sarah Lang and Elena Suárez Cronauer

Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften, 2026

Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften / Working Papers, 4

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With the proliferation of accessible machine learning tools, there is a pressing need for ethical frameworks within Digital Humanities. Although traditional source criticism is well established, Digital Humanities require a digital source criticism that considers both the historical sources themselves and the data creation process. Often misunderstood as solely gender-focused, Data Feminism provides such a toolkit for addressing bias and ethics. This working paper discusses how these principles originally focused on data science can be adapted to everyday Digital Humanities practice. It provides both theoretical grounding and practical examples, including a case study from our own work, demonstrating the relevance and application of Data Feminist principles for Digital Humanities.
@article{LangSuarezCronauer2026_BeyondDataFeminism, author = {Lang, Sarah and Suárez Cronauer, Elena}, title = {Beyond Data Feminism: Towards Ethical Data Work in the (Digital) Humanities}, year = {2026}, journal = {Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften}, note = {Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften / Working Papers, 4}, doi = {10.17175/wp_2026}, url = {https://zfdg.de/wp_2026}, }
A Discipline, Divided: On the Digital Humanities and Ideologies of Knowledge Work

Tessa Gengnagel and Sarah Lang

In DH2026 Book of Abstracts, 2026

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Debates about the digital humanities (DH) have long centred on a perceived "tension at the heart" of the field. Whether framed in terms of neoliberalism ("the dark side of DH"), the hack vs. yack debate, or more recent concerns about generative AI, corporate influence, sustainability, and global inequalities, these debates share an underlying political and socio-economic dimension. This paper argues that such tensions are rooted in implicit ideological assumptions that shape the forms of knowledge produced within DH. We examine this through two historical micro-studies spanning the emergence of DH in the 1960s to its most recent transformations in the 2020s. The first investigates precursors of DH in socialist East Germany during the 1960s and 1970s. The second situates the rise of Computational Humanities Research (CHR) in the late 2010s and early 2020s through the lens of feminized labour. Combining perspectives from the history of knowledge with feminist scholarship on DH, the paper offers a comparative perspective on how ideological commitments have shaped both the institutional development of DH and the knowledge practices it continues to produce.
@inproceedings{GengnagelLang2026, author = {Gengnagel, Tessa and Lang, Sarah}, title = {A Discipline, Divided: On the Digital Humanities and Ideologies of Knowledge Work}, booktitle = {DH2026 Book of Abstracts}, year = {2026}, }

2025

Documenting Datasets as a Tool for Change

Sarah Lang

In Digital Humanities 2025: Book of Abstracts, 2025

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This paper argues that comprehensive dataset documentation could be a foundational yet undervalued practice in the Digital Humanities, linking technical standards with critical concerns such as data ethics, decolonisation, inclusivity, explainability, and reproducibility. Building on initiatives such as FAIR, CARE, Data Feminism, and Datasheets for Datasets, it proposes documentation as a practical means of improving transparency, enabling responsible data reuse, and strengthening both the ethical and scholarly quality of digital humanities research.
@inproceedings{Lang2025DocumentingDatasets, author = {Lang, Sarah}, title = {Documenting Datasets as a Tool for Change}, booktitle = {Digital Humanities 2025: Book of Abstracts}, editor = {del Rio Riande, Gimena and Portela, Manuel and Alves, Daniel and Vieira Paulino, Joana}, pages = {885--887}, address = {Lisbon}, year = {2025}, url = {https://zenodo.org/records/18393402}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.18393402}, }

2024

DH, wir müssen reden! Eine Konversation über das Scheitern in den Digital Humanities

Ulrike Wuttke, Dario Kampkaspar, Jonas Müller-Laackman Sarah Lang, and 1 more author

BIBLIOTHEK – Forschung und Praxis, 2024

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A DH project that “fails” is usually seen as having wasted time and money, the two most valuable resources of the modern world. But when and how does a project really “fail” – and does a negative result really constitute overall failure? The authors posed these questions in a panel session at the conference “Dhd 2023”. A definite answer could not be found – but it was realised that there is a lot to discuss and to do to create a positive error culture.
@article{Lang2024Scheitern, author = {Wuttke, Ulrike and Kampkaspar, Dario and Lang, Jonas Müller-Laackman Sarah and Karcher, Stefan}, title = {DH, wir m{\"u}ssen reden! Eine Konversation {\"u}ber das Scheitern in den Digital Humanities}, journal = {BIBLIOTHEK – Forschung und Praxis}, pages = {84--89}, volume = {48}, number = {1}, year = {2024}, doi = {10.1515/bfp-2024-0004}, url = {https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/bfp-2024-0004}, }

2023

Data Feminism in DH

Sarah Lang, Luise Borek, and Nora Probst

In DHd2023: Open Humanities, Open Culture, 2023

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Data Feminism seeks to critically examine the predominantly male-dominated narratives of the Digital Humanities from the perspective of intersectional feminism. It is often observed that the white, cis-male, and hegemonic biases embedded in archives and source materials are reproduced in the data derived from them and in the digital technologies built upon those data. Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren Klein’s Data Feminism (MIT Press, 2020) has become a key reference for the Digital Humanities, yet it is primarily addressed to a data science audience and offers relatively few immediately applicable strategies for DH practice, creating a barrier to entry. This workshop pursues two objectives. First, in the spirit of a hackathon, participants will discuss and experiment with Data Feminism approaches using their own datasets. Second, they will collaboratively develop a "How to Data Feminism in DH" manifesto that introduces key concepts, recommends essential reading, and outlines the field’s foundational principles.
@inproceedings{dhd-workshop-datafem2023, author = {Lang, Sarah and Borek, Luise and Probst, Nora}, title = {Data Feminism in DH}, year = {2023}, booktitle = {DHd2023: Open Humanities, Open Culture}, series = {Book of Abstracts}, url = {https://zenodo.org/records/7715422}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.7715422}, }
Data Feminism as a Challenge for Digital Humanities?

Luise Borek, Elena Suárez Cronauer, Pauline Junginger, and 3 more authors

Jul 2023

English version

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Data Feminism, following the work of Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein (2020), offers an intersectional framework for critically examining the power structures embedded in data collection, modelling, curation, analysis, and presentation. While these approaches provide important impulses for Digital Humanities (DH), they have so far remained only marginally represented in the German-speaking DH community, particularly with regard to their practical implementation in everyday research projects. This contribution presents the outcomes of a workshop that sought to develop an initial set of recommendations for integrating data feminist perspectives into DH practice.
@online{Borek2023a, author = {Borek, Luise and Cronauer, Elena Su{\'a}rez and Junginger, Pauline and Lang, Sarah and Lemke, Karoline and Probst, Nora}, title = {Data Feminism as a Challenge for Digital Humanities?}, year = {2023}, month = jul, day = {1}, journal = {LaTeX Ninja Blog}, url = {https://latex-ninja.com/2023/07/01/data-feminism-as-a-challenge-for-digital-humanities/}, note = {English version} }
Data Feminism als Herausforderung für die Digital Humanities?

Luise Borek, Elena Suárez Cronauer, Pauline Junginger, and 3 more authors

Jul 2023

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Data Feminism, following the work of Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein (2020), offers an intersectional framework for critically examining the power structures embedded in data collection, modelling, curation, analysis, and presentation. While these approaches provide important impulses for Digital Humanities (DH), they have so far remained only marginally represented in the German-speaking DH community, particularly with regard to their practical implementation in everyday research projects. This contribution presents the outcomes of a workshop that sought to develop an initial set of recommendations for integrating data feminist perspectives into DH practice.
@online{Borek2023b, author = {Borek, Luise and Cronauer, Elena Su{\'a}rez and Junginger, Pauline and Lang, Sarah and Lemke, Karoline and Probst, Nora}, title = {Data Feminism als Herausforderung f{\"u}r die Digital Humanities?}, year = {2023}, month = jul, day = {1}, journal = {DHd Blog}, url = {https://dhd-blog.org/?p=19571} }
Open DH? Mapping Blind Spots

Tessa Gengnagel, Sarah Lang, Nora Probst, and 6 more authors

In DHd 2023 Open Humanities Open Culture. 9. Tagung des Verbands “Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum” (DHd 2023), Mar 2023

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Harkening back to the "big tent" metaphor (e.g. Terras 2013) which characterized debates about the inclusivity of DH ten years ago, the topic of ’openness’ in the conference theme invites associations of ’blue skies’, endless horizons, and the sense that everything is possible – in terms of participation, dissemination and objects of observation. This notion is complicated by several issues that discourses of cultural criticism have identified in the Digital Humanities in recent years (although they are not exclusive to the field): Among them monolingualism (Fiormonte 2021), a heritage of colonialism (Risam 2019) and gender imbalance (Gao et al. 2022, 330), to name but a few. Supposing that there is something to be learned from shifting the gaze towards these "borderlands" (Earhart 2018) of attention, the panel will interrogate the theme of the conference and probe the boundaries of its ’openness’ against this backdrop of socio-economic, political and infrastructural inequalities.
@inproceedings{Gengnagel2023b, author = {Gengnagel, Tessa and Lang, Sarah and Probst, Nora and Gerber, Anja and Dang, Sarah-Mai and Duan, Tinghui and Grallert, Till and Keck, Jana and Nyhan, Julianne}, title = {Open DH? Mapping Blind Spots}, booktitle = {DHd 2023 Open Humanities Open Culture. 9. Tagung des Verbands “Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum” (DHd 2023)}, year = {2023}, address = {Trier, Luxemburg}, month = mar, day = {10}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7715329}, url = {https://zenodo.org/records/7715329}, notes = {Blogpost report: https://dhd-blog.org/?p=19235}, }
Exploring the borderlands. A revolutionary potential for DH

Luise Borek, Sarah Lang, Quinn Dombrowski, and 5 more authors

In DH 2023: Collaboration as Opportunity, 2023

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The Digital Humanities often present themselves as a transformative field, yet they continue to inherit many of the structures and assumptions of the traditional humanities from which they emerged. This panel examines where the field’s revolutionary potential remains unrealised by focusing on its "borderlands" (Earhart 2018): spaces in which established practices and power structures can be critically reassessed. Bringing together international perspectives informed by critical DH scholarship, the panel addresses persistent blind spots, including monolingualism, colonial legacies, gender inequality, and structural precarity. Contributions explore these issues from multiple perspectives: the biases and absences embedded in cultural heritage collections; the tensions between DH’s emancipatory self-image and the institutional realities of academic labour; the challenges of balancing activism with community needs in the Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) initiative; the limits of decolonisation and the unfulfilled promises of DH’s transformative agenda; and the potential of feminist and decolonial design practices to foster more democratic, inclusive, and globally participatory forms of digital scholarship. Together, the panel asks what genuine collaboration and revolution might mean for the future of the Digital Humanities.
@inproceedings{dh2023borderlands, author = {Borek, Luise and Lang, Sarah and Dombrowski, Quinn and Fiormonte, Domenico and Metilli, Danielle and Murray, Padmini Ray and Terras, Melissa and Roy, Dibyadyuti}, title = {Exploring the borderlands. A revolutionary potential for DH}, year = {2023}, booktitle = {DH 2023: Collaboration as Opportunity}, editor = {Baillot, Anne and Tasovac, Toma and Scholger, Walter and Vogeler, Georg}, series = {Book of Abstracts}, pages = {442--445}, url = {https://zenodo.org/record/7961822}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7961822}, }
Herausforderung, Lesson Learned oder Chance? Der Zusammenhang zwischen Kulturen des Scheiterns und Open-Bewegungen in den Digital Humanities

Ulrike Wuttke, Dario Kampkaspar, Jonas Müller-Laackman, and 4 more authors

In DHd2023: Open Humanities, Open Culture, 2023

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This panel focuses on the question of how failure is addressed in the Digital Humanities. Why is there so little discussion of failure in DH project contexts, and even less formal publication on the subject, despite the obvious importance of learning from mistakes as much as from successes? Repeating the same mistakes wastes both time and resources, and without a healthy culture of acknowledging failure, the practical implementation of Open Science principles in the humanities remains difficult, as researchers are often reluctant to make their processes and shortcomings transparent. The panellists discuss, from multiple perspectives, the limitations of current approaches to failure in the Digital Humanities and explore ways of fostering a more constructive and open culture of learning from failure.
@inproceedings{scheitern2023, author = {Wuttke, Ulrike and Kampkaspar, Dario and Müller-Laackman, Jonas and Gengnagel, Tessa and Lang, Sarah and Karcher, Stefan and Schrade, Torsten}, title = {Herausforderung, Lesson Learned oder Chance? Der Zusammenhang zwischen Kulturen des Scheiterns und Open-Bewegungen in den Digital Humanities}, year = {2023}, booktitle = {DHd2023: Open Humanities, Open Culture}, series = {Book of Abstracts}, pages = {72--74}, url = {https://zenodo.org/records/7715544}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.7715544}, }