Andrew Piper on Textual Evidence in a Time of Data

Can We Be Wrong?: The Problem of Textual Evidence in a Time of Data

Andrew Piper

February 8, 2022, 1:00pm EST
Live. Online. Registration required.

This talk will address the problem of generalization when it comes to text-based evidence. How can we move, reliably and credibly, from individual observations about texts to more general beliefs about the world? The rise of computational methods has highlighted major shortcomings informing traditional approaches to textual analysis. In this talk, I will illustrate how we can use methods like machine-learning to study texts and reflect on the limitations (and affordances) of traditional text analysis.

Andrew Piper is Professor and William Dawson Scholar in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at McGill University. He is the director of .txtlab a laboratory for cultural analytics, and author most recently of Can We Be Wrong? The Problem of Textual Evidence in a Time of Data (Cambridge) and Enumerations: Data and Literary Study (Chicago).