Digital Humanities and Scholarship
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Abstract
Abstract
Hermeneutics underpins humanities and Information Systems (IS) research methodology, yet it remains understudied as a form of skilled labor across many professional domains, especially in the context of generative AI (GenAI). In this study, we conceptualize hermeneutic work as a distinct form of labor and show how this work is being impacted by the rise of GenAI tools. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with historians, we analyze how historians engage in interpretation through extended, recursive interactions with fragmented traces of the past. This work involves temporal rhythms, affective engagement, and is embedded in material infrastructures. Our preliminary findings show that GenAI introduces new opportunities for large-scale, rapid processing of sources, while introducing shifts in how historians allocate their time and attention. Historians respond to these changes with emergent strategies such as adaptive compartmentalization and casual interpretation.
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@article{Liu2026Tension,
title = {The Tension Of Time And Attention: Generative Ai And Historians’ Hermeneutic Work},
author = {Sybil (Shengyi) Liu and Ella Hafermalz},
journal = {Journal of the Association for Information Systems},
year = {2026},
url = {https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2026/genai/genai/15}
}FAQ
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