As a historian and academic librarian, Simone Franz serves as Data Manager in the German-British Academy project Prize Papers. Cataloguing - Digitisation - Presentation, based at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony. She is also a lecturer in Early Modern History at the Institute of History at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg. In her teaching, she combines early modern history with digital methods, introducing students to approaches in digital source criticism and key debates in digital history.

In her PhD project, she examined the complex circular processes of (re)negotiating migration in the early modern period. The focus was on marginalised actors, their perceptions, and their contribution to the collective production of knowledge about migration. Using a case study, she explored the interplay between local contexts and global dynamics during the 17th-century Dutch Expansion.

Her current research interests include the epistemological implications and curatorial responsibilities involved in handling ethically sensitive content in early modern digitisation projects, critical data studies, and the modelling and application of knowledge graphs. During her library traineeship, she worked on the semantic enrichment, opening, and reuse of research data from digital editions for transfer to knowledge graphs. In doing so, she critically examined gender biases and epistemic gaps in knowledge bases, questions of data quality and provenance, and the role of academic libraries and information infrastructures within digital research environments.

since 04/2026: Lecturer, Institute of History, Chair of Early Modern History, University of Oldenburg, Germany

since 04/2025: Research Associate, Database Management & Deputy Project Coordination, Prize Papers Project, Institute of History, Chair of Early Modern History (University of Oldenburg / Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Lower Saxony, Germany)

10/2024 - 10/2025: Research Associate, Publishing Services and Open Access Department, Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB) - Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library, Hannover, Germany

10/2022 - 09/2024: Library Trainee, University Library, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

09/2021 - 09/2022: Research Assistant, Manuscripts and Special Collections, Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, Germany

12/2014 - 05/2020: Research Associate, Department of History, Chair of Early Modern European History, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

Education

10/2022 - 09/2024: State Examination in Librarianship / Master of Arts in Library and Information Science, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

10/2015 - 04/2023: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in History (Early Modern European History), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

04/2010 - 12/2013: Master of Arts in History (Medieval and Early Modern European History), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

09/2011 - 08/2012: Study of Medieval and Early Modern European History, Archival Studies, and Dutch Studies, Universiteit Leiden, Netherlands

07/2011 - 08/2011: Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Netherlands (short-term study / exchange)

10/2006 - 03/2010: Bachelor of Arts in History and European Ethnology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

• Open Science & Research Infrastructure
• (Postcolonial) Digital Humanities/History
• (Critical) Data Studies
• Semantic Web & Knowledge Graphs
• Migration, Transfer & Entangled History
• (Global) Microhistory
• Dutch Expansion

09/2024: Erasmus + Staff Mobility, Helsinki University Library, Finland

01/2021 - 06/2021: Caroline von Humboldt + Programme Scholarship, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany

04/2017 - 09/2017: DAAD Doctoral Scholarship, Netherlands (Archive and Library Research)

Monographs

Franz, S. (forthcoming): Knowledge in the network. Practical approaches to the transfer of research data from digital editions into knowledge graphs (Berliner Handreichungen zur Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft)

Franz, S. (2026). Interwoven paths - interwoven worlds. Stories of officials, merchants and settlers as mediators of cultural transfer processes between the United Netherlands and Brandenburg-Prussia in the mid-17th century. Freiburg i. Br.: Verlag Herder. https://doi.org/10.53186/9783534641888

Edited Volume

Fadeeva, Y., Franz, S., Kampkaspar, D., Seltmann, M., Steyer, T., & Walkowski, N.-O. (Eds.). (2025). Reputation without a paywall? Scientific publishing in the digital change. Esch-sur-Alzette: Melusina Press. https://doi.org/10.26298/1981-5838

Journal Articles & Book Chapters

Franz, S., & Kindling, M. (2025). Mapping open science: Status quo of open access strategies and infrastructure offers at universities and higher education institutions in the oa.atlas. LIBREAS. Library Ideas, 47. https://doi.org/10.18452/34780

Franz, S., & Schaarschmidt, S. (2025). Enabling sustainable structures: Needs and perspectives of consortia bodies in Diamond Open Access financing. o-bib. Das offene Bibliotheksjournal, 12(4), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.5282/o-bib/6193

Bemme, J., Diekjobst, A., Franz, S., Müller, M., Odebrecht, C., & Strotmann-Frehe, K. (2025). Supporting Research: Consulting Infrastructures and Organisational Development. ABI Technology, 45(3), 249-259. https://doi.org/10.1515/abitech-2025-0041

Beer, A., Franz, S., Henzel, K., & Klaes, J. S. (2025). Inclusion and research data: GO UNITE! AG Inclusion in research data management. In Felsmann, C., Jopp, B., & Sieberns, A. (Eds.), Practical Handbook on Inclusion in Libraries: Barrier-free Access to Information, Education and Culture. Berlin: De Gruyter Saur, pp. 673-686. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111206943-086

Franz, S., & Voß, F. (2024). Acquisition, indexing and provision of problematic content: On dealing with racism, colonialism and extremism in specialised information services. o-bib. Das offene Bibliotheksjournal, 11(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.5282/o-bib/6008

Franz, S., Łopatka, T., Kunze, G., Meyn, N., & Strupler, N. (2022). Un/Doing Classification: Library classification systems between claims to universality and reductionist knowledge organisation. 027.7 Zeitschrift für Bibliothekskultur/Journal for Library Culture, 9(4). https://doi.org/10.21428/1bfadeb6.e3f3c686