Text and Opinion Mining in Humanities and Religious Studies Research (24 to 25 April 2012)

The workshop’s main objective is a discussion of possibilities and problems in the application of “Text Mining” and “Opinion Mining” tools to sources of regular humanities text research, with a special focus on Literature and Religious Studies (currently). The Text and Opinion Mining domain is developing rapidly in contemporary Computer Science, shifting gradually from its primary application targets in the realm of consumer reviews (on industrial products) and “social networks” on the web to a wider realm of subject areas. We will ask: what are the possibilities and limits of such a computerized “distant reading” (Franco Moretti) of texts? We therefore want to explore experiences, application needs, problems and new possibilities, by bringing together experts with experiences in the content analysis of such texts and experts from the technical side of computer science and software development. Thus, the workshop is designed to explore and to envision concrete new research projects between our existing and/or possible future partners.

The workshop was initiated by Prof. Dr. Andreas Grünschloß (Faculty of Theology, Associate 2011/2012) and Prof. Dr. Gerhard Lauer (Department of German Philology, Deputy Director of the Lichtenberg-Kolleg).