The Leibniz Institut für Europäische Geschichte (IEG) is organising an international conference on ‘Data ethics for historical research in a digital era: Critical reflections and best practices’ in Mainz (Germany) from 10 to 12 November 2025. The conference will be a hybrid event, although the physical attendance of presenters will be preferred.

Data ethics is a topic of increasing interest with the rise of generative AI and the use of data-fed algorithms in both the corporate world and in administrations. We are increasingly aware of the importance of the sources of the data we use: if our AI chatbot can learn from everything ever written online, how can it remain unbiased?

This conference dives into historical data. Historical archives and datasets are themselves the products of selective curation reflecting underlying biases and power dynamics of the context of their creation and collection as well as inequities in access, infrastructure, and perspective. If not countered, these historically limited datasets create and extend a bias then considered standard, but now considered sexist, racist, colonialist, imperialist.

A cross-disciplinary dialogue, focused on the unique challenges and needs within historical research, is therefore essential. In particular, there is an urgent need for collaborative efforts to define, seek, and implement shared ethical guidelines and solutions.

The conference seeks to bring together researchers and scholars of history in any form. The conference aims to raise awareness, foster discussion, and increase knowledge of strategies and best practices for ethical data use.

The call for proposals is open until 19 January 2025. You can find more information on the conference and the call for proposals on the IEG conference website.

This conference is being organised in cooperation with NFDI4Memory and Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur | Mainz.