Viktor Illmer

I’m a researcher and developer working on reproducible, human-centred research infrastructure. I conduct computational analyses and develop web-based tools to explore and communicate cultural data with a special focus on data models, gender, and open standards. Lately, I’ve been using Nix and container-based workflows to make digital humanities projects more robust and sustainable.

v-ji
LinkedIn
[email protected]

Education

PhD student in Media Informatics
Freie Universität Berlin · since 2025

M.A. Media and Communication Studies
Freie Universität Berlin · 2019–2022
Thesis: Tending the Digital Garden: Data Collection on TikTok

B.A. Media and Communication Studies / Korean Studies
Freie Universität Berlin · 2016–2019
Thesis: Gender Asymmetries Among Berlin Journalists on Twitter

Work Experience

IT Researcher (Research Associate)
Cluster of Excellence Temporal Communities (FU Berlin) · since 2022

• Published research on metadata, gender, and research infrastructure in computational literary studies
• Co-organised academic conferences, events and workshops
• Developed web applications to enable the exploration of humanities research
• Integrated reproducible workflows using Nix and other declarative tools
• Administrated the Cluster’s GitHub organisation and repositories

Student Research Assistant
Cluster of Excellence Temporal Communities (FU Berlin) · 2021–2022

• Assisted in designing data models for humanities data
• Supported data wrangling and analysis for structured metadata projects

Student Assistant, Campaign Management
Scout24 AG · 2019–2021
Management, technical implementation and evaluation of online advertising campaigns

• Implemented and monitored digital ad campaigns (Google Ad Manager)
• Developed a web application used for checking compliance of creatives with publisher guidelines
• Automated internal dashboards for performance tracking
• Performed statistical evaluation of optimisation measures

Skills

Data Analysis and Modelling

Python (Polars), RDF and Linked Data (SPARQL, JSON-LD), TEI (XML).
Experience with data wrangling, visualisation, and working with structured data in research contexts.

Web Development

TypeScript, SvelteKit, Tailwind CSS.
Built lightweight, human-friendly web apps and prototypes for research tools.

Reproducible Workflows and DevOps

Nix, Docker/OCI, Git, CI/CD with GitHub Actions.
Focused on creating reproducible research environments and workflows to support developers as well as non-technical collaborators.

Teaching and Communication

Experienced in university teaching and workshop facilitation.
Skilled at translating technical concepts for non-specialist audiences.
Enjoy collaborative, mixed-methods work across disciplines.

Languages

German (native), English (C2), Italian (C1), Spanish (B2), Korean (B2)

Selected Projects and Research

Co-authored conference paper critically assessing gender categories, provenance, and structuredness in Digital Humanities datasets. Used Polars and Plotly to summarise and visualise gender category distributions.

Metadata-driven genre analysis of underrepresented dramatic forms using statistical methods via SciPy, fully replicable using Nix for dependency control and production of a research artefact in the form of an OCI container.

Digital XML/TEI edition of a book purported to be by Umberto Eco, including analysis of named entities and idiosyncratic mistakes using lxml in Python.

Bluesky/Mastodon bot to monitor the German National Library’s GND gender vocabulary for the addition of new entries. Written in Python, evaluates RDF data and interacts with Bluesky and Mastodon. Runs via GitHub Actions. Fully packaged as a Nix flake.

Teaching

In the summer terms 2024 and 2025, I co-taught a seminar on Wikipedia and Wikidata as different collaborative knowledge systems from a humanities and social studies perspective.

In the winter terms 2023/24 and 2024/25, I taught a session titled Statistics for Humanities Students as part of the introductory lecture on Digital Humanities.