Global Currents: Cultures of Literary Networks, 1050-1900

FAIN: HJ-50187-14

Stanford University (Stanford, CA 94305-2004)
Elaine Treharne (Project Director: May 2013 to May 2017)

A collaborative project tracing the nature of literary networks across four major cultural domains: post-classical Islamic philosophy, Chinese women's writing from the Ming-Qing Dynasties, the Anglo-Saxon Middle-Ages, and the European Enlightenment. The project team includes humanities scholars and computer scientists from Stanford University (US), McGill University (Canada), École de Technologie Supérieure (Canada), and Groningen University (The Netherlands). The Canadian partners are requesting $249,942 from the Canadian funders (along with additional infrastructure funds from the Canada Fund for Innovation) and the Dutch partner is requesting €96,586 from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.

This project undertakes the cross-cultural study of literary networks in a global context, ranging from post-classical Islamic philosophy to the European Enlightenment. Integrating new image-processing techniques with social network analysis, we examine how different cultural epochs are characterized by unique networks of intellectual exchange. Research on "world literature" has become a central area of inquiry today within the humanities, and yet so far data-driven approaches have largely been absent from the field. Our combined approach of visual language processing and network modeling allows us to study the non-western and pre-print textual heritages so far resistant to large-scale data analysis as well as develop a new model of global comparative literature that preserves a sense of the world’s cultural differences.

Associated Products

International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds
Author: Elaine Treharne
Abstract: Session 1631 Title: Stanford's NEH-Funded Global Currents: Feature Modelling and the Medieval Manuscripts Abstract: The NEH-funded project, Stanford Global Currents, is part of an international team of scholars using visual language processing and feature modelling to determine the characteristics of information retrieval tools in a broad corpora of texts. At Stanford, we are focused on a large number of (long) 12th-century English manuscripts and the ways in which Latin, English, and French text is presented through a range of genres and qualities of production; that is, we focus on the characteristics of 100,000 examples of mise-en-page as displayed through network modelling. We hope to reveal exciting new results at Leeds, including the datability of _litterae notabiliores_; the consistency and localisation of the deployment of rubrics and intertextual space; the relative significance of types of enlarged capitals; and a typology of manuscript decoration from c. 1080 to 1220. Sponsor: Stanford Text Technologies Organiser Elaine Treharne, Department of English, Stanford University Moderator/Chair Mark Algee-Hewitt, Department of English, Stanford University Paper -a The Display of Manuscript Data (Language: English) Speaker: Ben Albritton, Center for Medieval & Early Modern Studies, Stanford University Indexing Terms: Computing in Medieval Studies, Manuscripts and Palaeography Paper -b Managing Manuscripts (Language: English) Speaker: Celena Allen, Center for Spatial & Textual Analysis (CESTA), Stanford University Indexing Terms: Manuscripts and Palaeography, Technology Paper -c Deductive and Inductive Research in Big Data Manuscript Studies (Language: English) Speaker: Matt Aiello, Worcester College, University of Oxford Indexing Terms: Computing in Medieval Studies, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Date Range: July 2016
Location: University of Leeds
Primary URL: http://https://imc.leeds.ac.uk/dbsql02/AQueryServlet?*id=30&*formId=30&*context=IMC&chosenPaperId=NA&sessionId=6607&conference=2016&chosenPaperId=&*servletURI=https://imc.leeds.ac.uk/dbsql02/AQueryServlet
Primary URL Description: Leeds IMC Program

International Electrical and Electronic Engineering Conference 2015 (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: International Electrical and Electronic Engineering Conference 2015
Author: Elaine Treharne
Abstract: This session on 'Big Data' included two lengthy presentations from Stanford's Global Currents team on the project.
Date: 10/29/2015

Stanford Global Currents (Web Resource)
Title: Stanford Global Currents
Author: Elaine Treharne
Abstract: This is, effectively, our electronic book. We need to add the results of our research, but the basis of the e-volume is here, and we'll be seeking an ISBN for it.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://globalcurrents.stanford.edu/
Primary URL Description: The website for Stanford Global Currents.

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