Events
“Using Neural Networks to Study Conceptual Shifts in Text and Image” – Melvin Wevers (Digital Humanities Group KNAW HUC)
Convolutional Neural networks and Deep Learning are hot topics in Computer Science. These techniques can be used to identify handwriting, recognize objects, and model language. However, the use of these techniques for humanities research is still limited. In this talk, Melvin will highlight how existing techniques can be used to study conceptual shifts in text and images. Moreover, Melvin will argue that computer scientists need to work together with humanities researchers to push innovations. This requires methodological flexibility and openness from both computer scientists and humanities scholars.
Melvin Wevers is a postdoctoral researcher at the Digital Humanities Lab of the KNAW Humanities Cluster in Amsterdam. He is currently working on the evolution of cultural expressions in text and images. For his PhD research, he applied text analysis software on large digitized newspaper collection to study how the United States functioned as a reference culture in Dutch Public Discourse. He was a research-in-residence at the National Library of the Netherlands and a fellow at the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (UCLA).