Methods of Text Analysis

DHUM

72500

Methods of Text Analysis

Humanities scholars have been experimenting with computerized methods of textanalysis since the 1940s, when Father Roberto Busa collaborated with IBM to produce a concordance of the works of Thomas Aquinas using early, punch-card based computers. In recent decades, text analysis methods have grown much more sophisticated, complex, and, in many cases, more difficult to interpret. There has also been an increasing adoption of text-analysis methods in search engines, marketing research, and surveillance, making them an important part of the institutional structures of the modern Internet. This course will explore methods of text analysis including the fundamentals of statistical modeling, natural language processing, feature selection, text tagging/annotation, and text classification. We will also consider the social, political, and philosophical implications of these technologies, both in the practice of scholarship and in their use in commercial and military applications. Students will complete a project applying text analysis to a research problem and/or write a final paper on a topic relating to the history, theory, or practice of text analysis

Offer as needed

Graduate School Graduate

No

030893