Colin Allen, provost professor at the University of Indiana Bloomington, delivers a talk titled "Darwin's Semantic Voyage: Exploration and Exploitation of Victorian Science in the Reading Notebooks." Allen discusses his research project in which the full text of 670 books found in Charles Darwin's reading notebooks is analyzed by using topic modeling to explore the semantic distance between each book in the notebook. Allen rigorously describes the methodology behind topic modeling and the algorithms which his team used to produce their results and details the ways in which the results have aided in understanding Darwin's influences and research patterns over the course of his career. Allen answers questions from the audience. Part of the Michigan State University Libraries Colloquia Series, cosponsored by the Philosophy Department and the Digital Humanities Program in the College of Arts and Letters. Held in the MSU Main Library.
Read
