Interview with Prof. Dr. Julia Nantke“I've benefited a lot from being involved in the faculty's strategic processes”

1 October 2025, by Zsuzsa Becker

Photo: Carina Wendland

After successfully completing the tenure track evaluation process following six years as a junior professor, Prof. Dr. Julia Nantke has been a W2 professor of Modern German Literature with a focus on digital humanities for written artifacts at the SLM I department since October 2025. In this interview, she talks about how she benefited from the tenure track program and what comes next.

Congratulations on successfully completing your tenure track process and receiving a tenured professorship. You joined us in 2019 from the University of Wuppertal. What were your goals and expectations when you started in Hamburg?

During my doctoral studies on the work of Kurt Schwitters and my work on the Schwitters Edition, I already dealt intensively with the topic of ‘written artefacts’ and subsequently, as a postdoctoral researcher in Wuppertal, I increasingly turned my attention to the field of digital humanities, i.e., the use of digital and, in particular, algorithmic methods for the development and analysis of humanities objects and research questions. The University of Hamburg offered and continues to offer me an environment in which both directions are represented by outstanding research work and are also very well positioned institutionally through the CSMC and the Cluster of Excellence UWA. My main expectation was to be able to further deepen my research focus in this inspiring environment. My dual appointment allowed me to concentrate in particular on the very exciting interface between digital humanities and analog, often handwritten, written artefacts. Funding from the Hermann Reemtsma Foundation right at the start of my junior professorship enabled me to pursue this line of research intensively as part of a project to digitally index the extensive correspondence of Richard and Ida Dehmel with a team of two research assistants.

What advantages does the tenure-track programme offer early career researchers and how have you personally benefited from the programme?

Above all, the programme offers a long-term perspective for a career in science, which is often characterised by unpredictability. In my case, this also applied in particular to the compatibility of career and family. Institutionally, you also feel very differently integrated than in a fixed-term position in a third-party funded project or as a postdoc under the auspices of the WissZeitVG. This has really strengthened my identification with the University of Hamburg. The TT programme gave me the opportunity to systematically develop my research and teaching profile and to plan my research priorities, projects and collaborations over a longer time horizon. I also benefited greatly from being increasingly involved in longer-term strategic processes at the institute and in the faculty, especially in the second phase of my junior professorship.

Were there any mentors, colleagues or special activities that particularly helped you during your junior professorship?

Overall, I received great support and interest in my research and in myself as a person from my colleagues at the institute and beyond right from the start. As a mentor, Prof. Dr. Martin Schäfer, with his many years of experience at UHH, provided me with advice and support on many occasions. As a 'newcomer' to Hamburg, this really helped me to find my feet. I also found a great colleague in Prof. Dr. Heike Zinsmeister in the field of Digital Humanities, with whom I initiated joint projects in the first phase of my junior professorship. The Digital Humanities Lab (DH Lab), which we initially founded in 2021 as a virtual networking and exchange forum for digital humanities research and which has now also been located in the humanities library in the Philturm as an open space for digital research and further education since 2023, is a key part of this. The DH Lab has opened up many new research perspectives, contacts and collaborations within the humanities and computer science at UHH and continues to do so today. Last but not least, it was also a great experience to be involved in the strategic development of the faculty as part of the Dean's Office's digital strategy while I was still a junior professor.

You've been Faculty Digital Officer since 2023 and have not only played a leading role in developing the Digital Humanities Lab, but also the Faculty's digital strategy. That must have been a major challenge in the early second phase of your junior professorship?

I found the collaboration with the Dean's Office and the great trust that Dean Prof. Dr. Silke Segler-Meßner placed in me very 'empowering' right from the start, especially as the topic of digitality is not only highly relevant for my own research, but also strategically in my view. In my opinion, the structured training of digital skills in research and teaching, the expansion of digital research activities and the critical reflection of their conditions are crucial for the visibility and relevance of the humanities, especially in light of the rapid developments in the field of generative AI.

Working as an FDO was particularly challenging for me because it requires strategic thinking and action on a faculty, and in some cases university, scale. I initially found it challenging to familiarise myself with these dimensions and the many different factors that had to be taken into account. However, I benefited greatly from the fact that I had the opportunity to slowly 'grow into' the role of FDO. The DH Lab had already been in existence since 2021 and the Dean gradually involved me in the dialogue rounds on the digital strategy, so I found taking on the role much more of an enrichment. As FDO, I have the great opportunity to play an active role in the strategic development of the faculty - and in a field that is particularly close to my heart.

What plans do you have for the coming years – in research, teaching, transfer and personally?

I would like to systematically expand the field of Digital Humanities at the UHH. In research, I would like to further develop the research priorities I developed during my junior professorship and, in cooperation with colleagues from UHH and SUB as well as representatives from the GLAM area, also contribute to the overall strategic development of the faculty in the field of digital humanities. The interactions between analogue materiality and current digital practices, especially in the field of machine learning and generative AI, play just as central a role as the reflection and historical contextualisation of the implications of digital writing in the 21st century. I am also particularly looking forward to the collaboration with colleagues from the University of Leeds, which we initiated last year. We are currently planning several joint research projects that will actively model and critically reflect on the field of CCI for the indexing and use of archives and cultural assets.

In teaching, the focus will be on anchoring digital methods and critical reflection on digitality more firmly in the curriculum. These aspects are already a regular part of my courses. In the future, we at the Digital Office Humanities, which I am heading up together with Heike Zinsmeister, are planning to develop a faculty certificate programme and a Master's degree in Digital Humanities. Both will help to further increase the attractiveness of the UHH for national and international students of the humanities.

In July 2024, I organised the "Hands-on AI" transfer event with other UHH colleagues, which was about getting to know the functionality, possibilities and limits of generative AI in a low-threshold and playful way. Following on from this, I would like to develop further formats in the future to engage in dialogue with people outside the academic field on the topic of AI. I would like to place a special focus on cooperation with schools, as I consider the guided critical examination of the functioning of algorithms and artificial intelligence to be a central aspect of the education of students.

Personally, I feel very much at home at the UHH as a whole and in my environment at the faculty and institute, and I am very much looking forward to many more exciting projects and activities with great colleagues inside and outside UHH.