The summer school is jointly organised by the
The five-day programme will focus on real-world cases from Assyriology and related fields presented by researchers who are actively engaged with ongoing and digitally oriented research projects. Next to a solid working knowledge of digital applications and their use in the field of Assyriology, the summer school provides participating students with opportunities to meet and interact with students from other countries, as well as a diverse range of scholars from universities in the Nordic countries.
Contact teaching takes place 1-5 June. The submission deadline for student assignments is 15 June, and results of the independent projects will be presented by the students in an online meeting on 18 June 2026.
Eligibility
The summer school is intended for students in Assyriology and related fields without much prior experience in the application of digital tools to the study of cuneiform sources or related materials. Students of all levels (BA, MA and PhD) and from all over the world are encouraged to apply, but preference will be given to students from higher research institutions in the Scandinavian countries and from Erasmus+ partner universities. Course participants are required to bring a laptop for their personal use.
Course Programme
The course consists of five full days of contact teaching (Monday 1–Friday 5 June), with hands-on training in a variety of computing applications as well as lectures and discussions led by the teaching staff and invited speakers. After the intensive week of classroom teaching, students will work independently on a project, to be submitted on 15 June. The course concludes with an online meeting (on 18 June), during which students will briefly present and discuss their independent project with the teachers and course participants.
The completed coursework will be graded as pass/fail, with consideration given to the student’s participation in the lectures (this counts towards 50% of the final grade), written assignment (30%) and oral presentation of the submitted project (20%).
Participants who successfully complete the summer school program and independent project will receive 5 ECTS credits from the University of Helsinki. The summer school can, however, not guarantee that all home universities will accept the study credits to count towards the student’s study programme.
Through completing the summer school, participants will:
- gain in-depth understanding of file formats and information search and management
- explore ways of collecting, cleaning, and integrating text and data
- familiarise themselves with online data structures and the use of linked data
- learn basic visualisation methods for exploring and communicating data
- structure and use of map resources and geographical information systems
- familiarise themselves with network concepts and social network analysis
- use and explore existing lexical networks
- gain the ability to execute a simple digital or computational humanities research project under supervision
The programmes and tools introduced in the course include:
- Excel
- OpenRefine - tool for inspecting and cleaning tabular data
- Python - programming language
- Tableau - tool to visualize tabular data
- QGIS - free and open source GIS
- Gephi - free and open source network analytical software
How to apply
Students wishing to enrol to the course should submit an application letter (max. two pages), outlining their motivation for participating, current stage of education, courses passed (especially ancient language courses), and a brief summary of any previous experience with digital applications for studies or research, including software familiarity. Please also provide contact details for a primary teacher or course representative at your home institution, whom the organisers can contact in case of questions.
Note that participation in the summer school is free of charge, but that participants will have to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses. The summer school staff will be available to offer advice and guidance on travel options and places to stay.
This year, we are applying for the summer school to be organised as an Erasmus+ course. In case the application is successful, accepted students from Erasmus+ partner universities will be able to apply for Erasmus+ funding to cover (part of) their travel and accommodation costs.
Please submit your application per email, as a single pdf-document sent to
In case of issues, please contact the organisers as soon as possible.
Organisers and teaching staff
The 2026 DAA Nordic Summer School is organized by Docent Lena Tambs and Prof. Saana Svärd at the University of Helsinki.
Teaching staff will include Dr. Ellie Bennett (University of Helsinki), Dr. Seraina Nett (University of Copenhagen), Dr. Rune Rattenborg (Lund University), Dr. Aleksi Sahala (University of Helsinki), Gustav Ryberg Smidt (Ghent University), Prof. Dr. Saana Svärd (University of Helsinki) and Docent Dr. Lena Tambs (University of Helsinki).