Tallinn University
27–29 August 2025
1 ECTS

We look forward to our three-day international summer school for PhD students, to be held at Tallinn University from 27-29 August 2025.

Under the overarching theme of memory, media, and machines, the summer school will explore how the digital technology and the rise of AI are reshaping our understanding of cultural memory, heritage practices, and historical knowledge. Participants will critically engage with theoretical perspectives and emerging methodologies at the intersection of history, technology, and culture.

Topics include:

• Digital memory and archival practices
• The histories and futures of digital heritage
• Digitisation, 3D modelling, and the politics of preservation
• Artificial intelligence and LLMs for digital heritage
• Named entity recognition (NER) and geographic information systems (GIS)
• Access, reuse, and sustainability in digital heritage

The summer school aims to foster an interdisciplinary and international dialogue on the implications of digital technologies for the ways in which we construct, preserve, and engage with the past.

Programme

The programme features a group of internationally recognised scholars and practitioners working across media studies, archival theory, digital humanities, data science and AI-driven heritage research. Each expert will deliver a keynote lecture and facilitate a seminar or practical workshop. Abstracts for the summer school’s components can be found here.

All lectures will be held in Tallinn University’s Mare building (Uus-Sadama 5), room M-135. All workshops will take place in the Astra building (Narva Road 29), room A-544. The two buildings are connected, and the rooms are within a short walking distance of each other.

Wednesday, 27 August

09:00–09:30   Registration and welcome coffee

09:30–09:45    Marek Tamm (Tallinn University): Opening remarks

09:45–10:45     Paolo Martinelli (University of Bologna): Lecture: Four stories of digital remediation of cultural heritage

10:45–11:15       Coffee break

11:15–12:45        Paolo Martinelli: Workshop: Interfacing open data with generative AI: A semiotic approach to data accessibility

12:45–14:00      Lunch break

14:00–15:00      Chiara Piccoli (University of Amsterdam): Lecture: Re-constructing urban pasts in the age of AI: Methods, challenges and reflections

15:00–15:15       Coffee break

15:15–16:45       Chiara Piccoli: Workshop: Object-based storytelling – introduction to Voyager 3D Story

16:45–17:15       Coffee break

17.15–18:00       Campus tour at Tallinn University

18:00–20.00     Buffet dinner at Tallinn University

 

Thursday, 28 August

09:30–10:30     Asko Nivala (University of Turku): Lecture: Geoparsing and the Spatial Turn in Cultural History

10:30–10:50      Coffee break

10:50–12:40      Aldo Gangemi (University of Bologna): Lecture and workshop: Perspectival pluralism and deep humanities

12:40–13:30      Lunch break

13:30–14:30      Filip Ginter (University of Turku): Lecture: Automated prompting of LLMs as a tool for cultural heritage data preprocessing and analysis

14:30–14:45      Coffee break

14:45–16:15       Filip Ginter: Workshop: Automated prompting of LLMs as a tool for cultural heritage data preprocessing and analysis

16:15–16:30       Coffee break

16:30–17:30       Indrek Ibrus (Tallinn University): Lecture: Building knowledge graphs for the study of cultural and economic evolution

18:00–19:30      Visit: Virtual reality time travelling experience: VR Tallinn 1939/44

20:00–23:00     Dinner at Botik

 

Friday, 29 August

09:30–10:30       Julia Noordegraaf (University of Amsterdam): Lecture: Unlocking digital cultural heritage in time and space: A scalable approach to the study of human culture

10:30–11.00        Coffee break

11:00–12:30        Asko Nivala: Workshop: Digital Mapping for Humanists: A Geoparsing Workshop

12:30–13:30        Lunch break

13:30–15:00        Julia Noordegraaf: Workshop: Infrastructures for digital humanities research: Exploring audiovisual archival collections via the CLARIAH Media Suite

15:00–16:30        Concluding group discussion: student flash talks

17:00–19:00        Natural/Digital: Visit to Estonian Museum of Natural History

19:30–23.00        Dinner at Kompu