The Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, in collaboration with the German Historical Institute Warsaw and the Mazovian Local Government Centre for Teacher Training, is organising an international conference “Measuring the Nation. Collecting, Interpreting, and Digital Processing of Historical Data”. It will take place in Warsaw from 29 September to 1 October 2026. Further information can be found on the conference website: ihpan.edu.pl/measuring-nation/

The project is funded from the state budget, allocated by the Minister of Science and Higher Education under the Science Vectors Programme.

Research in the field of digital humanities, which has been developing for at least a dozen or so years, apart from obvious common features, also has disciplinary and regional specificity. In the field of history and related sciences, its subject matter often includes mass sources produced by the state. Their digitisation, processing and appropriate dissemination serve research purposes as well as the promotion of knowledge and civic attitudes, expressed, for example, in involvement in the protection of local cultural heritage.

Even before the digital revolution in the publication of historical data, there was a shift in the history of the broadly understood human sciences, including statistics and cartography. The pioneers of New Economic History used the analysis of mass sources to verify deeply rooted judgements about economic relations in the past. In the history of geography, researchers such as John Brian Harley saw maps as normative elements, not so much a reflection of social reality as attempts to actively shape it. From this perspective, the mass sources produced in the 19th and 20th centuries are a component of the modern pursuit of order and control. They are an irreplaceable source for studying the processes of knowledge production and the worldview of their creators, but their direct informational value is questionable. The past hidden behind mass sources cannot always be caught up with and verified.

The interdisciplinary conference Measuring the Nation: Collecting, Interpreting, and Digital Processing of Historical Data will provide a platform for discussion between representatives of various disciplines and research traditions working with mass sources on East Central Europe and beyond produced in the 19th and 20th centuries. The meeting of researchers, sometimes representing extremely different approaches to sources, is not intended to develop a uniform position. Instead, it will result in an open catalogue of research questions and practices, taking into account the different sensibilities of historians of ideas and economics, source editors, historical demographers, digital humanities specialists, and cultural studies scholars.

Conference languages:

• English
• Polish

Conference organisers:

• Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences
• The German Historical Institute in Warsaw
• The Masovian Regional Teacher Development Center

Conference committee:

• Dr. Wiesława Duży, Spatial History Lab, Department of Historical Atlas, IH PAN
• Prof. Maciej Górny, Department of the History of Ideas and the History of the Intelligentsia in the 19th and 20th Centuries IH PAN, Deputy Director for Research
• Dr. Tomasz Panecki, Head of Department of Historical Atlas, IH PAN
• Prof. Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska, Director of The German Historical Institute in Warsaw
• Prof. Bogumił Szady, Head of Institute for the Historical Geography of the Church in Poland, The John Paul II Catholic Univeristy of Lublin
• Dr. Adrianna Sznapik, Section for the Retrospective Bibliography for the 19th and 20th Centuries, IH PAN
• Dr. Adam Zapała, Head of Digital History Lab, Department of Historical Atlas, IH PAN

Conference Secretary:

• Dr. Michał Raczkowski

Contact details:

email: measuringnation@ihpan.edu.pl