THE CRITICAL INQUIRY IN HUMANITIES KNOWLEDGE GRAPHS: CHALLENGES, METHODS AND INNOVATIONS

This presentation explores the challenges of modelling humanities critical inquiries in Knowledge Graphs (KGs), addressing the tendency of current KGs and online catalogues to flatten interpretative complexity. A key issue is the omission of superseded theories instead of representing them with a weaker logical status (WLS). The study evaluates existing RDF reification methods and their ability to express non-asserted claims, alongside a survey of Wikidata’s Cultural Heritage (CH) items, which reveals a lack of WLS usage. As a solution, Conjectures is introduced, an RDF 1.1 Named Graph extension integrates critical inquiries into CH KGs. Its efficiency and effectiveness are tested against existing methods and applied to a case study on document authenticity, focusing on Siegfried Haider’s Index of Medieval Documents Concerning the Upper Austrian Region. A data model and KG are implemented in a web application to demonstrate integration into an online catalogue. The presentation concludes with reflections on the research findings and future directions for expanding this approach.