publications

2022

1. Grallert, Till. ‘Open Arabic Periodical Editions: A Framework for Bootstrapped Scholarly Editions Outside the Global North’. Edited by Roopika Risam and Alex Gil. Digital Humanities Quarterly 16, no. 2, "Minimal Computing" (28 June 2022). http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/16/2/000593/000593.html.

   Abstract

   This paper introduces and evaluates the project Open Arabic Periodical Editions (OpenArabicPE) as a case study of minimal computing. It confronts hyperbolic promises of mass digitization and computational methods for the exploration of digitized cultural heritage as a hegemonic episteme rooted in 20th-century, English-speaking, neoliberal capitalism from the margins. OpenArabicPE is a framework for open, collaborative, and scholarly digital editions of early Arabic periodicals from the late Ottoman Eastern Mediterranean. It addresses the specific affordances of a historical multilingual society, whose material heritage continues to be looted, destroyed, and neglected; whose material heritage resists digitization efforts by being dependent on non-Latin scripts and, for instance, non-Gregorian calendars; and whose contemporary heirs cannot draw on the vast resources in wealth and socio-technical infrastructures of the Global North. Centered around generosity and minimal computing, OpenArabicPE is run by volunteers and currently hosts six editions with some 630 journal issues and more than 7 million words, without any funding, by re-purposing data, software, and infrastructures.

2. Romanov, Maxim, and Till Grallert. ‘Establishing Parameters for Stylometric Authorship Attribution of 19th-Century Arabic Books and Periodicals’. In Book of Abstracts, 346–48, 2022. https://dh-abstracts.library.virginia.edu/works/11858.

   Abstract

   The paper presents the first systematic application of stylometric authorship attribution to nineteenth-century Arabic with the aim of a) empirically establishing thresholds for parameters for reliable attribution and b) contributing computational answers to a core question in Arab Periodical Studies.

2021

1. Grallert, Till. ‘Catch Me If You Can! Approaching the Arabic Press of the Late Ottoman Eastern Mediterranean through Digital History’. Edited by Simone Lässig. Geschichte Und Gesellschaft 47, no. 1, Digital History (10 June 2021): 58–89. https://doi.org/10/gkhrjr.

   Abstract

   The essay explores the use of digital history for the systematic study of the periodical press in the late Ottoman Eastern Mediterranean (1906 –1918) as a discursive field. It evaluates the methodological and practical challenges of digital history as rooted in the socio-technical infrastructures of the Global North when applied to the Global South. It does so using a case study of four Arabic journals from Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, and Damascus. After outlining the need for building a corpus and the challenges presented by this effort, this article explores a digital corpus of a total of circa 2.65 million words through (social) network analysis and stylometric authorship attribution.

2020

1. ———. ‘Urban Food Riots in Late Ottoman Bilād Al-Shām as a ”Repertoire of Contention”’. In Crime, Poverty and Survival in the Middle East and North Africa: The ’Dangerous Classes’ since 1800, edited by Stephanie Cronin, 157–76. I.B. Tauris, 2020. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781838605902.ch-010.

2017

1. ———. ‘The Journal Al-Muqtabas between Shamela.Ws, HathiTrust, and GitHub: Producing Open, Collaborative, and Fully-Referencable Digital Editions of Early Arabic Periodicals—with Almost No Funds’. In Advances in Digital Scholarly Editing: Papers Presented at the DiXiT Conferences in The Hague, Cologne, and Antwerp, edited by Peter Boot, Anna Cappellotto, Wout Dillen, Franz Fischer, Aodhán Kelly, Andreas Mertgens, Anna-Maria Sichani, Elena Spadini, and Dirk van Hulle, 401–6. Sidestone Press, 2017. https://www.sidestone.com/books/advances-in-digital-scholarly-editing.
2. Grallert, Till, Jochen Tiepmar, Thomas Eckart, Dirk Goldhan, and Christoph Kuras. ‘Digital Muqtabas CTS Integration in CLARIN’, 2017. https://www.clarin.eu/sites/default/files/Grallert-etal-CLARIN2017_paper_21.pdf.

2016

1. Grallert, Till. ‘Mapping Ottoman Damascus Through News Reports: A Practical Approach’. In The Digital Humanities and Islamic & Middle East Studies, edited by Elias Muhanna, 175–98. De Gruyter, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110376517-009.

2013

1. ———. ‘[Review]: Weber, Stefan: Damascus. Ottoman Modernity and Urban Transformation 1808-1918’. Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 108, no. 1 (2013): 39–51.

2012

1. ———. ‘To Whom Belong the Streets? Investment in Public Space and Popular Contentions in Late Ottoman Damascus’. Bulletin d’Études Orientales 61 (2012): 327–59. https://doi.org/10/ggntb2.

2010

1. Andrews, Molly. ‘Biografie Und Geschichte: Dynamiken Individueller Und Kollektiver Politischer Erzählungen’. In Können Marginalisierte (Wi(e)Der)Sprechen? Zum Politischen Potenzial Der Sozialwissenschaften, edited by Martin Dege, Till Grallert, Carmen Dege, and Niklas Chimirri, translated by Till Grallert, 347–405. PsychoSozial-Verlag, 2010.
2. Dege, Carmen, Martin Dege, Till Grallert, and Niklas Chimirri. ‘Widersprechen!’ In Können Marginalisierte (Wi(e)Der)Sprechen? Zum Politischen Potenzial Der Sozialwissenschaften, edited by Martin Dege, Till Grallert, Carmen Dege, and Niklas Chimirri, 471–95. PsychoSozial-Verlag, 2010.
3. Dege, Martin, Till Grallert, Carmen Dege, and Niklas Chimirri, eds. Können Marginalisierte (Wi(e)Der)Sprechen? Zum Politischen Potenzial Der Sozialwissenschaften. PsychoSozial-Verlag, 2010.