Research Approach
HISTONETICA approaches historical research as the analysis of relational constellations. Rather than examining isolated sources, it investigates configurations of actors, institutions, places, concepts, and media in which historical knowledge emerges, circulates, and is transformed. The research approach aims to systematically model these structures and make them comparable. Digital methods are not employed merely for the capture of sources, but for the reconstruction of historical processes across temporal, spatial, and institutional contexts. Research at HISTONETICA is thus oriented toward processuality, comparability, and scalability, combining conceptual model-building with empirical analysis.
Current Research
Vienna Botany and Collections
The project investigates knowledge production and material circulation in the botanical sciences of Vienna between 1879 and 2025. At the centre are the herbaria of the University of Vienna (WU) and the Natural History Museum Vienna (W) as epistemic infrastructures involved in the formation of scientific ordering systems.
Imperial Knowledge Orders and Colonial Research Contexts
The research analyses the structure of scientific knowledge circulation in colonial and postcolonial contexts. It examines how expeditions, institutional networks, and collecting practices contributed to the stabilisation of global knowledge orders and which long-term ordering effects these constellations produced and continue to exert today.
Metadata-Based Reconstruction of Botanical Research Networks
At the core is the empirical reconstruction of botanical research practice based on historical administrative and collection metadata. Handwritten documentation, lending, and acquisition registers of the herbarium of the Natural History Museum Vienna (W) and the herbarium of the University of Vienna (WU) are systematically digitised and processed within a relational database. On this basis, research movements, exchange relations, and institutional networks can be reconstructed across time, space, and plant groups. This reveals historical research priorities, personal and institutional entanglements, and the development of collections as scientific working instruments.
Digitisation of Botanical Collections and Patterns of Use
The research analyses how the digitisation of botanical collections transforms practices of use, lending, and reference to herbarium specimens. The focus is on the herbarium of the Natural History Museum Vienna (W), the herbarium of the University of Vienna (WU), and the botanical-taxonomic database JACQ as a central digital infrastructure for collection and research data. The study examines how the parallel existence of physical herbaria and digital reference systems gives rise to changing practices of access and lending, and what effects these developments have on use, visibility, and institutional working practices of botanical collections.