Kiara is a data orchestration tool designed for digital humanities researchers who want to maintain a critically aware relationship with their sources and data. Developed by the DHARPA project (Digital History Advanced Research Projects Accelerator) at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History, kiara addresses a fundamental challenge in digital humanities: how to preserve scholarly agency and critical engagement when using computational methods.
Unlike conventional data processing tools that often function as "black boxes," kiara is built to illuminate the research process from start to finish. It's a Python-based tool that combines the technical power of data pipeline frameworks with a strong emphasis on transparency, documentation, and critical reflection.
At its core, kiara is modular and data-centric, allowing researchers to document their engagement with sources at every step. Whether you're analyzing texts, building network graphs, or processing historical data, kiara helps you maintain awareness of how your sources are transformed into computer-legible data and how your methodological choices shape your research outcomes.
The tool operates via command line or Jupyter notebooks, making it accessible to researchers with basic Python familiarity while offering the depth and flexibility needed for advanced digital humanities projects.