Mikko Tolonen

Mikko Tolonen

@tolonen.bsky.social

Professor Digital Humanities, University of Helsinki. Early modern studies; intellectual history; PI of Helsinki Computational History Group

365 followers17 following176 posts

Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

The Call for Talks & Posters for HELDIG Summit 2026 is now open! A great opportunity for anyone working with digital humanities to present their work, share ideas and discuss current questions with the community in Helsinki: www.helsinki.fi/en/helsinki-... Please spread the word as well!

helsinki.fiCall for talks and posters: HELDIG Summit 2026 Methodological encounters | Digital Humanities | University of HelsinkiWe are gathering speakers and poster proposals for the next HELDIG Summit that aims to provide a snapshot of digital research in SSH today. To bring about discussion, we are planning three themes: dig...
Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

Don't forget to apply for our DH lecturer position in Helsinki. DL midnight today, so still plenty time to get your applications in!

Mikko Tolonen@tolonen.bsky.social

We are hiring! Permanent position for a University Lecturer in Digital Humanities at the University of Helsinki. The application period is open and closes on 3 October 2026: jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki... Please read the job description carefully and feel free to spread the word widely.

jobs.helsinki.fiUniversity Lecturer in Digital HumanitiesUniversity Lecturer in Digital Humanities
Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

Today was COMHIS development day. Autumn in Helsinki, things rolling nicely forward. Remember to apply for the open lecturer position if you want a chance to work with us!

Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

Our article “Translation Mining: An AI-Driven Taxonomy of Eighteenth-Century Anglo-French Translation Practices” is out: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... We map translations between ECCO and Gallica at paragraph level (500k titles), offer a data-driven taxonomy, and release the data + demo. OA.

tandfonline.comTranslation mining: An AI-driven taxonomy of eighteenth-century Anglo-French translation practicesThis paper introduces the concept of “translation mining”, a cross-lingual embedding approach that bridges close reading and large-scale quantitative analysis of historical translations. Focusing o...
Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

Positive news continue! Our project application "Interpreting Early Modern Intellectual Networks and Texts: an Interdisciplinary Approach (IMPRINT)" has been granted funding by the Research Council of Finland.

Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

Great news, please share widely: the Faculty of Humanities, University of Helsinki will open a permanent university lecturer position in Digital Humanities in Autumn 2026. Teaching-focused, future-facing methods role, linked to LingDig, HELDIG and SSH-wide methods teaching. More details in August.

Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

”Computational hermeneutics: why study canonical figures like David Hume in the age of AI?”, published in Digital Enlightenment Studies: digitalenlightenmentstudies.org/article/id/64/

digitalenlightenmentstudies.orgComputational hermeneutics: why study canonical figures like David Hume in the age of AI?This article argues that figures like David Hume (1711–1776) should be studied in the age of AI not despite computation but through it. Drawing on Enlightenment studies and computational history, I sk...
Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

the mystery shall remain a mystery...

Kati Kallio@katikallio.bsky.social

You return to the Digital Humanities Hackathon the morning after the social event evening and what do you find? The event leaders @tolonen.bsky.social and Jouni Tuominen singing karaoke 😍 Did you sing all night here? #DHH26

Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

First interim presentations at #dhh26 ongoing. We have groups on poetry, crimes, parliaments, books and profits; pretty much all you need in a digital humanities hackathon!

Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

Less than a week until #DHH26 hackathon! Everyone is welcome to the public presentations on 29 May: 👉 www.helsinki.fi/en/helsinki-... In the meantime, explore this spring’s project course work on 18th-century human–animal relationship and symbolism in heraldry: 👉 blogs.helsinki.fi/dh-project-c...

helsinki.fiPresentation of #DHH26 Hackathon projects on 29rd May 2026 | Digital Humanities | University of HelsinkiHelsinki Digital Humanities Hackathon is organized on 20 – 29 May 2026 at the University of Helsinki. The event brings together students and researchers of humanities, social sciences and computer sci...
Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

Annual field trip day for COMHIS. This is our hiking group, more people joined for lunch and museum tour at Tarvaspää. Even weather was on our side! Good times.

Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

Really happy about COMHIS. Papers soon out on “Translation Mining” & “Meaning Matching” (huge efforts). Also a step from text reuse to image reuse, that paper is published in DHQ: dhq.digitalhumanities.org/vol/19/4/000... More to follow. 2026 will be a good year for computational history in HEL.

dhq.digitalhumanities.orgDHQ: Digital Humanities Quarterly: Image Reuse in Eighteenth-Century Book History: Large-Scale Data-Driven Study of Headpiece Ornament Variants
Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

Excellent opportunity for researchers in computational humanities and AI: a 3-year Research Fellow/Postdoctoral Researcher position in Helsinki focusing on trustworthy AI across linguistic and cultural diversity. jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki... Please spread the word!

jobs.helsinki.fiResearch Fellow/Postdoctoral Researcher in trustworthy AI across linguistic and cultural diversitiesResearch Fellow/Postdoctoral Researcher in trustworthy AI across linguistic and cultural diversities
Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

Good people of LECTIO in Leuven edited a volume on "Charting the Future of Historical Humanities"; out now. I contributed a piece on historical research in the contemporary setting: www.brepolsonline.net/content/book...

brepolsonline.netFrom Text to Meaning. Historical Humanities in the Age of AI and Interdisciplinarity | Brepols OnlineThis outlines how computation can serve historical research when historians and data scientists define questions, data and methods together. It first shows why well-structured sources, such as library...

Mikko Tolonen reposted

Vera Mikkilä
@veramikkila.bsky.social

Hallitus lanseerasi kehysriihessä ennennäkemättömän kuvion. 20M€ tutkijoiden itse hankkimasta EU-rahasta lasketaan lain mukaiseksi t&k-lisärahoitukseksi ja valtion omia panostuksia vähennetään saman verran. Järjestelmätasolla tällainen ajattelu luo käsittämättömän anti-insentiivin.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

New paper from COMHIS group just out at EACL: “Detecting Latin in Historical Books with Large Language Models: A Multimodal Benchmark”. aclanthology.org/2026.eacl-lo... A collaboration across our CASCADE and MECANO Marie Curie Training networks. More to follow.

aclanthology.orgDetecting Latin in Historical Books with Large Language Models: A Multimodal BenchmarkYu Wu, Ke Shu, Jonas Fischer, Lidia Pivovarova, David Rosson, Eetu Mäkelä, Mikko Tolonen. Proceedings of the 19th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (V...

Mikko Tolonen reposted

Ruth Ahnert
@ruthahnert.bsky.social

Great job opportunity working with my better half @sebastianahnert.bsky.social on an exciting new #digitalhumanities project in Cambridge, funded by @schmidtsciences.bsky.social and working with fantastic people at CESTA Stanford and DensityDesign Lab Italy. www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

cam.ac.ukResearch Assistant/Research Associate (Fixed Term)Applications are invited for a full time post-doctoral researcher to work on an international collaboration to develop AI-based solutions for research on archival materials as part of the Humanities
Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

Nice moment at the end of the volume: in his concluding response, Skinner finishes by quoting our line that “refraining from participating in shaping the future of our field [intellectual history] would be unwise.” Let's hope some less prominent traditional humanists also get the point.

Mikko Tolonen reposted

Voltaire Foundation
@voltaire.ox.ac.uk

📣 Come work with us! #18C 📣 This one is for the #DH crowd! We seek a Content Engineer to assist in maintaining and developing the digital resources of the Voltaire Foundation. More information and application process on our website: voltaire.ox.ac.uk/news-item/va...

voltaire.ox.ac.ukVacancy: Content EngineerContract type: Fixed Term Contract (2 years) Hours: Full time (37.5 hours); part time considered at minimum of 0.6 FTE We are a busy and friendly research department within the Humanities Division…
Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

New COMHIS article, led by doctoral researcher Iiro Tiihonen, "Saturated by Commerce: A Computational Analysis of Eighteenth-Century British Political Discourse" published in History of European Ideas doi.org/10.1080/0191...

doi.orgSaturated by Commerce: A Computational Analysis of Eighteenth-Century British Political DiscourseJohn Pocock, Istvan Hont, and scholars of the Scottish Enlightenment have profoundly shaped how historians understand eighteenth-century debates about commerce and ‘commercial society’. Their influ...

Mikko Tolonen reposted

Voltaire Foundation
@voltaire.ox.ac.uk

Applications welcome by 9 January!

Voltaire Foundation@voltaire.ox.ac.uk

📣📣📣 Opportunity: Director of the Voltaire Foundation 📣📣📣 We are seeking a Director to lead the Voltaire Foundation, to succeed Professor Nicholas Cronk, and warmly invite applications. www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/news-item/op...

voltaire.ox.ac.ukOpportunity: Director of the Voltaire FoundationWe are seeking a Director to lead the Voltaire Foundation, to succeed Professor Nicholas Cronk, and warmly invite applications. The Voltaire Foundation, originally established thanks to the…
Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

Thinking about an MA in Digital Humanities or related fields (Language Technology, Cognitive Science, Phonetics, General Linguistics)? Applications to LINGDIG MA programme at @helsinki.fi are open 2–16 January. Programme: www.helsinki.fi/en/degree-pr... DH track: www.helsinki.fi/en/digital-h...

helsinki.fiLinguistic Diversity and Digital Humanities | Master’s programme | University of HelsinkiStudy at the University of Helsinki and get an understanding of the nature and diversity of human language and cognition.
Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

Next week we are hosting the “In and Out of the Canon in Intellectual History” conference at the University of Helsinki! If you are curious about the canon, non-canon, or anything in between, feel free to drop by and listen in. Programme + details: www.helsinki.fi/en/researchg...

helsinki.fiConference "In and Out of the Canon in Intellectual History" | Centre for Intellectual History | University of HelsinkiExciting news - Helsinki Centre for Intellectual History is organising a conference! When? In exactly one week!
Mikko Tolonen
@tolonen.bsky.social

The Helsinki Centre for Intellectual History 2025 conference asks what it means to be in and out of the canon in intellectual history. 📅 15–17 December 2025 📍 University of Helsinki 🗂️ Conference schedule now available: www.helsinki.fi/en/researchg...

helsinki.fiIn and Out of the Canon in Intellectual History | Centre for Intellectual History | University of HelsinkiThe Helsinki Centre for Intellectual History devotes its 2025 conference to exploring the question of being in and out of the canon of intellectual history. We welcome proposals for panels and individ...