Political Science Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2021
Journal
Holocaust Studies
First Page
1
URL with Digital Object Identifier
https://doi.org/10.1080/17504902.2021.1979179
Last Page
19
Abstract
Holocaust archives have traditionally been the scholarly territory of the arts and humanities. However, given the tremendous increase in the number of testimonies and documents available, especially since the mid-1990s with the advent of the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive and in the 2000s with the opening of the Arolsen Archives, it is necessary to evaluate the applicability of a numerate approach. Statistical methods, data science, and machine learning have the capacity to handle large, messy, and disparate bodies of information about human behavior. Not only could a quantitative lens disrupt traditional ways of housing, organizing, and analyzing data on the Holocaust, but quantitative tools may also revolutionize the way this genocide is taught and remembered. This article discusses some of the ethical concerns associated with digital materials and quantitative analyses, and encourages a careful and ethical approach to Holocaust research in the digital age.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Notes
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Holocaust Studies, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/17504902.2021.1979179