Origin & Development
HISTONETICA emerged in the context of a doctoral research project and subsequently developed into an independent methodological and infrastructural research approach. While the dissertation makes use of HISTONETICA as a research environment, the project itself is not limited to a single qualification endeavour but is conceived as a long-term, cooperative research infrastructure.
The starting point was the question of how historical sources can be systematically approached in their relational contexts. Central to this approach is the recognition that historical documents do not exist in isolation, but are embedded in relationships with actors, institutions, places, and concepts. Making these relational structures reconstructible and analytically usable constitutes the methodological foundation of HISTONETICA.
Since 2025, this approach has been progressively translated into a functioning digital environment. What began as conceptual and theoretical reflection has evolved into a research infrastructure that combines the functions of archive, laboratory, and space of inquiry, and is being productively applied in ongoing research projects.
With the establishment of the non-profit association HISTONETICA – Institute for Digital Relational Historical Network Research, the institutional foundation for long-term development was laid. Since then, the infrastructure has been deliberately opened to cooperative and cross-institutional research.
Research Laboratory
The research laboratory is the operational research domain of HISTONETICA. Here, the established methodological approach is applied, tested, and further developed within concrete research projects. The laboratory connects conceptual work with empirical analysis and anchors the methodological framework in research practice.
Knowledge Archive
As a digital knowledge archive, historical sources are systematically processed, annotated, and made available on a long-term basis. The archive serves as a foundation for analysis, comparison, and scholarly reuse.
Software Hub
The software hub comprises a modular digital environment designed to support historical research. The tools employed integrate the capture, analysis, and organisation of sources within a shared infrastructure.
The Team Behind Histonetica
HISTONETICA is run by an interdisciplinary two-person team that closely integrate scholarly reflection and technical implementation. Through their joint work, conceptual, academic, and infrastructural structures emerge that complement one another and sustain the institute as a whole.
PhD candidate in History and Scientific Director of HISTONETICA. She develops and oversees the scholarly elaboration of the research approach as well as the intellectual orientation and academic positioning of the institute. Her research operates at the intersection of history, knowledge circulation, and digital methodology, deepening the theoretical foundations of HISTONETICA’s work.
Conceptual system architect and developer of HISTONETICA. He defined the conceptual framework, the overall methodological logic, and the digital architecture, which serve as more than technical infrastructure—they are an integral component of the research approach itself. His work translates theoretical concepts into structural models and digital systems, thereby shaping the way historical relationships are analysed.