The new annual school is led by an international team of specialists from five major European institutions, including Dr Tom Brughmans and Dr Matteo Mazzamurro from UrbNet. The event aims to provide 25 early career researchers with training in network theory and practice.

Networks are increasingly used to shed light on the human past, with approaches including analysing letter correspondence in 16th-century England, mapping the similarity of material culture in the prehispanic US Southwest, reconstructing ancient Roman family ties through funerary inscriptions, and many more. The school addresses the gap between a growing interest in such approaches for humanities research, and the lack of formal training in most degree programmes. Over the course of five days, it introduces its participants to essential topics of network analysis, including data cleaning, modelling, visualisation, data documentation, and critical perspectives.

The school is explicitly interdisciplinary in nature and designed for a wide audience, including history, archaeology, and literature scholars, who are united by their common interest in the human past. The forthcoming event has already attracted the interest of over 100 applicants from 28 countries and is now fully subscribed. It is intended to be a recurring event aimed at establishing Aarhus and the other organising universities as reference points in past network research. The next course will open its doors to applications in early 2025.  Visit https://www.pastnetworks.net/ for the latest information.