In 2024, the project expanded its content with a new lesson authored by Petros Apostolopoulos: “Wikipedia as a Source of Historical Knowledge: Applying Digital Source Criticism”. This lesson, available in English, French and German, explores how Wikipedia can be critically assessed as a historical source using digital methods.
Community outreach
In 2024, the Ranke.2 project featured prominently at several international events, contributing to discussions on digital methods, open education and public history. Sofia Papastamkou presented a poster on Ranke.2 at the OPERAS Research Infrastructure Conference (24–26 April, Zadar, Croatia). Alongside Stefan Krebs, she also co-organised a panel on measuring the impact of open education resources for digital humanities. The panel, held at the 8th Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries Conference (27–31 May, Reykjavik, Iceland), brought together representatives from Ranke.2, DARIAH-Campus and Programming Historian.
The project and its broader focus on digital source criticism and data literacy were further explored during the EUROPAST Summer School (1–4 July, Belval, Luxembourg). Ranke.2 was also represented in a panel on teaching digital public history skills, held as part of the 7th World Conference of the International Federation for Public History (3–6 September, Belval, Luxembourg).
Project evolution
Initially part of the Public History and Outreach research area, in 2024 Ranke.2 transitioned to the Digital Research and Infrastructure team. This shift also marked a change in leadership: Stefan Krebs (PI from 2021 to 2024) was succeeded by Andreas Fickers (Professor and C²DH Director) and Sofia Papastamkou (postdoctoral researcher), who now serve as co-principal investigators.
Throughout 2024, the project team, working closely with the Office for Partnership, Knowledge and Technology Transfer, sought institutional approval to license Ranke.2 under an open licence. A favourable decision was reached in March 2025, a key milestone toward formal recognition of Ranke.2 as an open educational resource and a notable contribution to the University’s open science strategy.
Finally, Ranke.2 was presented as a case study in knowledge transfer during the C²DH research evaluation in December 2024. The project received a special mention from the evaluation committee, highlighting the sustained and valuable contributions made by successive teams since its inception.