070185 UE Quellengattungen, qualitative und quantitative Methoden (2021S)

This seminar offers a comprehensive overview of the diversity of historical source genres and an introduction to the most important methods in dealing with textual, pictorial, material and electronic source material from the Middle Ages to the present, with the temporal focus tending to be on the Late Middle Ages. The seminar looks into the genesis and formal characteristics of historical sources as a basis for their interpretation and introduces the basic techniques and criteria of source criticism. A broad spectrum of qualitative and quantitative sources from material artifacts to written testimonies and images to new media is discussed exemplarily. On the basis of selected aspects, the socio-cultural and political contexts of origin of different types of narrative and serial sources and the research traditions associated with their interpretation will be discussed in a problem-oriented manner. In addition, the possibilities and limits of their informative value are explored in the light of current research questions. In addition, the seminar provides basic knowledge of the most important methods (and historical auxiliary sciences) for the critical examination of textual, pictorial, material and electronic sources.

In this seminar, students acquire (or deepen) a basic knowledge of archiving and transmission as cultural-historical phenomena and current challenges, a basic knowledge of the medial diversity of sources, and an overview (including initial practical experience) of central methods for analyzing and interpreting sources. With a special focus on a broad spectrum of medieval, early modern and modern types of sources, they acquire various subject-relevant basic skills and methods of historical science: to classify and critically evaluate historical sources with critical consideration of their genesis and formal characteristics as well as to identify and apply adequate methods for the analysis of qualitative and quantitative sources and suitable analysis methods for analog, digital sources and material artifacts. In the field of transversal skills, this encourages students to critically question the emergence and transmission of information, to interpret its formal manifestations in various media, and finally, to express their acquired knowledge in written and oral form in a pointed and comprehensible manner.