Sarah Lang
@sarahalang.bsky.social
Head of Digital Humanities at Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin). Previously DH Graz. Alchemy and early modern history of science.
Reposted by Sarah Lang
#CallForApplications ✨🔭
Short term #Fellowships with a stipend and self-funded #ResearchStays in #HistSci, #PhilSci, and #SocSci are open to applicants of any nationality 🌏
🔗 bit.ly/4od8Jx5
🗓️ Deadline: Jan 15 and Sep 15 (rolling basis)
📍 Berlin, Germany
#CfA #AcademicCareer
Short term #Fellowships with a stipend and self-funded #ResearchStays in #HistSci, #PhilSci, and #SocSci are open to applicants of any nationality 🌏
🔗 bit.ly/4od8Jx5
🗓️ Deadline: Jan 15 and Sep 15 (rolling basis)
📍 Berlin, Germany
#CfA #AcademicCareer
December 2, 2025 at 9:43 AM
#CallForApplications ✨🔭
Short term #Fellowships with a stipend and self-funded #ResearchStays in #HistSci, #PhilSci, and #SocSci are open to applicants of any nationality 🌏
🔗 bit.ly/4od8Jx5
🗓️ Deadline: Jan 15 and Sep 15 (rolling basis)
📍 Berlin, Germany
#CfA #AcademicCareer
Short term #Fellowships with a stipend and self-funded #ResearchStays in #HistSci, #PhilSci, and #SocSci are open to applicants of any nationality 🌏
🔗 bit.ly/4od8Jx5
🗓️ Deadline: Jan 15 and Sep 15 (rolling basis)
📍 Berlin, Germany
#CfA #AcademicCareer
Worried about the environmental impact of using #LLMs in ( #DH ) research, but not sure where to start?
I got you covered!
We reviewed the research & ran a #DigitalHumanities case study with carbon reporting, sharing all the tools, code & info:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno.... ( #DHd #GreeningDH)
I got you covered!
We reviewed the research & ran a #DigitalHumanities case study with carbon reporting, sharing all the tools, code & info:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno.... ( #DHd #GreeningDH)
Quantifying the Environmental Footprint of Curating Datasets with LLMs
This study evaluates the environmental trade-offs of using large language models to curate cross-collection oral-history datasets in the Commoning Oral Histories of Knowledge (CORAL) project. Manual s...
doi.org
December 15, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Worried about the environmental impact of using #LLMs in ( #DH ) research, but not sure where to start?
I got you covered!
We reviewed the research & ran a #DigitalHumanities case study with carbon reporting, sharing all the tools, code & info:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno.... ( #DHd #GreeningDH)
I got you covered!
We reviewed the research & ran a #DigitalHumanities case study with carbon reporting, sharing all the tools, code & info:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno.... ( #DHd #GreeningDH)
Reposted by Sarah Lang
During Q&A, Piorko alludes to a previous collaboration w/Lang that culminated in the decryption of a polyalphabetic substitution cipher in Arthur Dee's alchemical notebook (Sloane MS 1902).
Here's the full story courtesy of @atlasobscura.com: www.atlasobscura.com/articles/med... #HSS2025 #alchemy
Here's the full story courtesy of @atlasobscura.com: www.atlasobscura.com/articles/med... #HSS2025 #alchemy
How Scholars Cracked a Medieval Alchemist’s Secret Code
Written in a puzzling Latin cipher, it contains his formula for eternal life.
www.atlasobscura.com
November 16, 2025 at 4:25 PM
During Q&A, Piorko alludes to a previous collaboration w/Lang that culminated in the decryption of a polyalphabetic substitution cipher in Arthur Dee's alchemical notebook (Sloane MS 1902).
Here's the full story courtesy of @atlasobscura.com: www.atlasobscura.com/articles/med... #HSS2025 #alchemy
Here's the full story courtesy of @atlasobscura.com: www.atlasobscura.com/articles/med... #HSS2025 #alchemy
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Lang has also created a YouTube class for curators, instructors & collectors who are interested in digitizing the materiality of pre-modern books.
You can watch the full playlist here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
#HSS2025 #RareBooks #SpecColls
You can watch the full playlist here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
#HSS2025 #RareBooks #SpecColls
Digitizing the Materiality of the Premodern Book - YouTube
This playlist is part of the project "Digitizing the Materiality of the Premodern Book" ( https://dha.acdh.oeaw.ac.at/de/digitizing-materiality-premodern-boo...
www.youtube.com
November 16, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Lang has also created a YouTube class for curators, instructors & collectors who are interested in digitizing the materiality of pre-modern books.
You can watch the full playlist here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
#HSS2025 #RareBooks #SpecColls
You can watch the full playlist here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
#HSS2025 #RareBooks #SpecColls
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Piorko now shifts to an analysis of a 3rd text: Botanologia, an English herbal by physician William Salmon published in 1710.
Villanova's copy of the book is filled w/a wide variety of specimens corresponding to its entries, including plants from the New World (e.g. South Carolina) #HSS2025 #botany
Villanova's copy of the book is filled w/a wide variety of specimens corresponding to its entries, including plants from the New World (e.g. South Carolina) #HSS2025 #botany
November 16, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Some of you may be wondering whether AI/LLMs could facilitate the analysis of alchemical texts.
Lang notes one potential use: analyzing early modern recipe books & extracting lists of ingredients--but emphasizes the need for human proofreading. (It can save some labor but often adds more!) #HSS2025
Lang notes one potential use: analyzing early modern recipe books & extracting lists of ingredients--but emphasizes the need for human proofreading. (It can save some labor but often adds more!) #HSS2025
November 16, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Some of you may be wondering whether AI/LLMs could facilitate the analysis of alchemical texts.
Lang notes one potential use: analyzing early modern recipe books & extracting lists of ingredients--but emphasizes the need for human proofreading. (It can save some labor but often adds more!) #HSS2025
Lang notes one potential use: analyzing early modern recipe books & extracting lists of ingredients--but emphasizes the need for human proofreading. (It can save some labor but often adds more!) #HSS2025
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Lang has colleagues who attempted to reproduce the recipes in Processus Universalis. The chemists then grouped similar recipe variants based on their experiments.
Interestingly, their findings aligned w/stylometric analysis (see below), a quantitative technique to analyze literary style #HSS2025
Interestingly, their findings aligned w/stylometric analysis (see below), a quantitative technique to analyze literary style #HSS2025
November 16, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Lang has colleagues who attempted to reproduce the recipes in Processus Universalis. The chemists then grouped similar recipe variants based on their experiments.
Interestingly, their findings aligned w/stylometric analysis (see below), a quantitative technique to analyze literary style #HSS2025
Interestingly, their findings aligned w/stylometric analysis (see below), a quantitative technique to analyze literary style #HSS2025
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Lang now shifts the discussion to another project, looking @ the Processus Universalis, a cluster of alchemical texts that exists in 100+ versions.
Since 2018, the Gotha Alchemy Network has transcribed 17 versions of those texts & the dataset is online: github.com/sarahalang/p... #HSS2025 #DigHum
Since 2018, the Gotha Alchemy Network has transcribed 17 versions of those texts & the dataset is online: github.com/sarahalang/p... #HSS2025 #DigHum
GitHub - sarahalang/processus-universalis: This contains XML documents from the 2018-2019 "Processus Universalis" project by Netzwerk Alchemie (Gotha) and serves as a testbed to explore future applica...
This contains XML documents from the 2018-2019 "Processus Universalis" project by Netzwerk Alchemie (Gotha) and serves as a testbed to explore future applications building on this chemica...
github.com
November 16, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Lang now shifts the discussion to another project, looking @ the Processus Universalis, a cluster of alchemical texts that exists in 100+ versions.
Since 2018, the Gotha Alchemy Network has transcribed 17 versions of those texts & the dataset is online: github.com/sarahalang/p... #HSS2025 #DigHum
Since 2018, the Gotha Alchemy Network has transcribed 17 versions of those texts & the dataset is online: github.com/sarahalang/p... #HSS2025 #DigHum
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Lang: Some of the changes in the AA are merely literary flourishes, but there are more substantive additions, including citations to specific (e.g., Basil Valentine) & anonymous alchemical authorities. Such inclusions helped reaffirm Dee's intellectual pedigree & experimental authority. #HSS2025
November 16, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Lang: Some of the changes in the AA are merely literary flourishes, but there are more substantive additions, including citations to specific (e.g., Basil Valentine) & anonymous alchemical authorities. Such inclusions helped reaffirm Dee's intellectual pedigree & experimental authority. #HSS2025
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Sarah Lang describes how she & Piorko compared the text in Dee's 2 texts using MS Word's track changes functions. They then converted the data into XML & wrote code to create these visualizations.
(The gray lines in the image on the right show where corollaries start.)
#HSS2025 #DigitalHumanities
(The gray lines in the image on the right show where corollaries start.)
#HSS2025 #DigitalHumanities
November 16, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Sarah Lang describes how she & Piorko compared the text in Dee's 2 texts using MS Word's track changes functions. They then converted the data into XML & wrote code to create these visualizations.
(The gray lines in the image on the right show where corollaries start.)
#HSS2025 #DigitalHumanities
(The gray lines in the image on the right show where corollaries start.)
#HSS2025 #DigitalHumanities
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Piorko: Arthur Dee went out of his way to praise specific experimental practitioners, but some of the most curious sections in AA revolve around anonymity.
Here we see one example of a quote previously attributed to Ripley but later rewritten & described in the margins as "anonymous" #HSS2025
Here we see one example of a quote previously attributed to Ripley but later rewritten & described in the margins as "anonymous" #HSS2025
November 16, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Piorko: Arthur Dee went out of his way to praise specific experimental practitioners, but some of the most curious sections in AA revolve around anonymity.
Here we see one example of a quote previously attributed to Ripley but later rewritten & described in the margins as "anonymous" #HSS2025
Here we see one example of a quote previously attributed to Ripley but later rewritten & described in the margins as "anonymous" #HSS2025
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Piorko compares an earlier text (Fasciculus Chemicum) & Arca Arcanorum to shed light on Dee's alchemical journey.
For example, he added relevant passages/citations/images in AA (e.g. Tractatus Maximi Domini Dunstani (Sloane MS 1876) & the Ripley Scroll) to emphasize his new achievements #HSS2025
For example, he added relevant passages/citations/images in AA (e.g. Tractatus Maximi Domini Dunstani (Sloane MS 1876) & the Ripley Scroll) to emphasize his new achievements #HSS2025
November 16, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Piorko compares an earlier text (Fasciculus Chemicum) & Arca Arcanorum to shed light on Dee's alchemical journey.
For example, he added relevant passages/citations/images in AA (e.g. Tractatus Maximi Domini Dunstani (Sloane MS 1876) & the Ripley Scroll) to emphasize his new achievements #HSS2025
For example, he added relevant passages/citations/images in AA (e.g. Tractatus Maximi Domini Dunstani (Sloane MS 1876) & the Ripley Scroll) to emphasize his new achievements #HSS2025
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Sunday morning panels are underway here at #HSS2025! I've returned to Borgne for a panel on practical knowledge-making in early modern books.
Megan Piorko begins w/a discussion of Arca Arcanorum (The Secret of Secrets), an alchemical text by Arthur Dee (son of John) re: the philosophers' stone.
Megan Piorko begins w/a discussion of Arca Arcanorum (The Secret of Secrets), an alchemical text by Arthur Dee (son of John) re: the philosophers' stone.
November 16, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Sunday morning panels are underway here at #HSS2025! I've returned to Borgne for a panel on practical knowledge-making in early modern books.
Megan Piorko begins w/a discussion of Arca Arcanorum (The Secret of Secrets), an alchemical text by Arthur Dee (son of John) re: the philosophers' stone.
Megan Piorko begins w/a discussion of Arca Arcanorum (The Secret of Secrets), an alchemical text by Arthur Dee (son of John) re: the philosophers' stone.
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Congratulations to Oliver Eberle on winning the 2025 Heinz Billing Prize! The prize was awarded for his contributions to the MPIWG-@bifold.berlin project "The Sphere: Knowledge System Evolution & the Shared Scientific Identity of Europe."
🔗 bit.ly/48K86a9
#DigitalHumanities #HistSci @maxplanck.de
🔗 bit.ly/48K86a9
#DigitalHumanities #HistSci @maxplanck.de
October 27, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Congratulations to Oliver Eberle on winning the 2025 Heinz Billing Prize! The prize was awarded for his contributions to the MPIWG-@bifold.berlin project "The Sphere: Knowledge System Evolution & the Shared Scientific Identity of Europe."
🔗 bit.ly/48K86a9
#DigitalHumanities #HistSci @maxplanck.de
🔗 bit.ly/48K86a9
#DigitalHumanities #HistSci @maxplanck.de
Reposted by Sarah Lang
#letstalkabouttheory! @tesstess.bsky.social explores how theory has become more visible in DH. BUT, it was never absent. #thingsareinmotion
June 12, 2025 at 1:26 PM
#letstalkabouttheory! @tesstess.bsky.social explores how theory has become more visible in DH. BUT, it was never absent. #thingsareinmotion
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Last up is Torsten Roeder with a talk on "Greening DH" elaborating on DH and its struggle of depending on computers, computing, and infrastructures which, however, is one of the big drivers of climate change. Is DH actually sustainable in itself? #efficiency #sufficiency #consistency #solarcomputing
June 13, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Last up is Torsten Roeder with a talk on "Greening DH" elaborating on DH and its struggle of depending on computers, computing, and infrastructures which, however, is one of the big drivers of climate change. Is DH actually sustainable in itself? #efficiency #sufficiency #consistency #solarcomputing
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Second day of "Disciplinary Transformations" by @chnunn.bsky.social starts with the "Dark Sides of DH." First up was Alíz Horváth showing us the multilingual transformations of DH over the last few years. We are more multilingual than we think! #multilingualism #multilinguality
June 13, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Second day of "Disciplinary Transformations" by @chnunn.bsky.social starts with the "Dark Sides of DH." First up was Alíz Horváth showing us the multilingual transformations of DH over the last few years. We are more multilingual than we think! #multilingualism #multilinguality
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Followed by @sarahalang.bsky.social's talk on "Empowerment:" DH does not have a gender problem, but an underrepresentation of feminized topics. Feminized labor remains undervalued (in academia). Let's focus more on making labor visible by e.g. recognizing datasheets as valuable research outcomes.
June 13, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Followed by @sarahalang.bsky.social's talk on "Empowerment:" DH does not have a gender problem, but an underrepresentation of feminized topics. Feminized labor remains undervalued (in academia). Let's focus more on making labor visible by e.g. recognizing datasheets as valuable research outcomes.
Reposted by Sarah Lang
What is not mentioned in the invitation - the conference language is English, so international guests are also welcome :-) I will also be happy to share the link to the livestream on 11 June if there are any other interested people in the world (we already have 40 participants at the moment 🥳)
📢 Vom 12.-13.6. veranstalte ich ein Symposium zum Thema "Disciplinary Transformations? Humanities Impact on Reshaping the DigitalHumanities" - mit David M. Berry u.a. - für einen Zugang zum Livestream gerne PN an mich. Alle Details unter tinyurl.com/DH-transformed #DigitalHumanities
tinyurl.com
June 10, 2025 at 10:31 PM
What is not mentioned in the invitation - the conference language is English, so international guests are also welcome :-) I will also be happy to share the link to the livestream on 11 June if there are any other interested people in the world (we already have 40 participants at the moment 🥳)
Reposted by Sarah Lang
GlossIT is hiring a Digital Humanities postdoctoral researcher for 4 years (75% FTE). Candidates should have experience with digital editions and philological/linguistical projects:
jobs.uni-graz.at/en/jobs/9a9b...
Position from 1 June 2025 (starting date negotiable).
Deadline is 12 May 2025.
jobs.uni-graz.at/en/jobs/9a9b...
Position from 1 June 2025 (starting date negotiable).
Deadline is 12 May 2025.
Universität Graz
jobs.uni-graz.at
April 23, 2025 at 4:07 PM
GlossIT is hiring a Digital Humanities postdoctoral researcher for 4 years (75% FTE). Candidates should have experience with digital editions and philological/linguistical projects:
jobs.uni-graz.at/en/jobs/9a9b...
Position from 1 June 2025 (starting date negotiable).
Deadline is 12 May 2025.
jobs.uni-graz.at/en/jobs/9a9b...
Position from 1 June 2025 (starting date negotiable).
Deadline is 12 May 2025.
Reposted by Sarah Lang
Hoe kunnen computationele en digitale benaderingen helpen bij het bestuderen van de geschiedenis van vroege moderne chemie? Dit bespreekt @sarahalang.bsky.social tijdens de Descartes-Huygens lezing (27-2) + workshop voor studenten & academici👉 https://buff.ly/3QjX3tQ @mariekehendriksen.bsky.social
February 18, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Hoe kunnen computationele en digitale benaderingen helpen bij het bestuderen van de geschiedenis van vroege moderne chemie? Dit bespreekt @sarahalang.bsky.social tijdens de Descartes-Huygens lezing (27-2) + workshop voor studenten & academici👉 https://buff.ly/3QjX3tQ @mariekehendriksen.bsky.social
Reposted by Sarah Lang
On February 27, @sarahalang.bsky.social will give the bi-annual @huygensknaw.bsky.social - Descartes Centre lecture on Computational approaches to Early Modern Chemistry in Amsterdam. Preceded by a workshop! Sign up now via: www.huygens.knaw.nl/en/evenement... #histchem #histsci #DH
Computational Approaches to Early Modern Chemistry - Huygens Instituut
On Thursday 27 February, Dr. Sarah A. Lang (University of Graz) will give the bi-annual Huygens-Descartes lecture on Computational Approaches to Early Modern Chemistry. For the first time, the lecture...
www.huygens.knaw.nl
December 12, 2024 at 9:13 AM
On February 27, @sarahalang.bsky.social will give the bi-annual @huygensknaw.bsky.social - Descartes Centre lecture on Computational approaches to Early Modern Chemistry in Amsterdam. Preceded by a workshop! Sign up now via: www.huygens.knaw.nl/en/evenement... #histchem #histsci #DH
Reposted by Sarah Lang
One of the students in my lab, who is a CS student, gave me the permission to share that in his job interviews, he was asked about the digital humanities projects he worked on and the interviewers were super impressed that he was applying his CS knowledge to other disciplines. 🏅
February 8, 2024 at 7:24 PM
One of the students in my lab, who is a CS student, gave me the permission to share that in his job interviews, he was asked about the digital humanities projects he worked on and the interviewers were super impressed that he was applying his CS knowledge to other disciplines. 🏅
Reposted by Sarah Lang
February 12, 2024 at 6:56 PM
Reposted by Sarah Lang
We are very happy to publicly release the CATMuS Medieval dataset on @huggingface.bsky.social :
huggingface.co/datasets/CAT...
This dataset is unique in the space of HTR, as it includes more 160 000 lines of ground truth in 10 languages over 9 centuries (8-16 CE) in Latin scripts over 208 docs.
huggingface.co/datasets/CAT...
This dataset is unique in the space of HTR, as it includes more 160 000 lines of ground truth in 10 languages over 9 centuries (8-16 CE) in Latin scripts over 208 docs.
February 13, 2024 at 12:56 PM
We are very happy to publicly release the CATMuS Medieval dataset on @huggingface.bsky.social :
huggingface.co/datasets/CAT...
This dataset is unique in the space of HTR, as it includes more 160 000 lines of ground truth in 10 languages over 9 centuries (8-16 CE) in Latin scripts over 208 docs.
huggingface.co/datasets/CAT...
This dataset is unique in the space of HTR, as it includes more 160 000 lines of ground truth in 10 languages over 9 centuries (8-16 CE) in Latin scripts over 208 docs.