Philology has always focused on textual evidence and is positioned to flourish in a world where the analysis of data plays a fundamental role. But if philologists have always been – and pride themselves on being – in some sense “data-driven”, the rise of quantitative methods challenges them to reimagine how they think and which skills they develop. Much of the most promising research over the coming generation will be built upon texts that have been automatically generated from images of writing. Billions and billions of words will be generated this way, making correction impossible. It is essential to understand what one can and cannot do with varying error rates in such texts. But even with traditional resources, such as critical editions, we need quantifiable measures about where, how often and how different versions of a text differ. This talk frames questions about how philology can move forward.

Gregory Ralph Crane is an American classical philologist and computer scientist. He completed his doctorate in classical philology at Harvard University and subsequently worked there as an assistant professor. For his work on Digital Humanities he has received many high-profile awards. In 2013, he was appointed Alexander von Humboldt Professor of Digital Humanities at the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Leipzig.

Location
Akademiegebäude am Gendarmenmarkt, Einstein-Saal, Jägerstraße 22/23, 10117 Berlin

Please register until 09.10. here: https://www2.bbaw.de/Anmeldung-datascience

Program

16.10.2018 – 18:00

Introduction
Martin Grötschel – President of the Academy

Lecture: Data Science, Philology and Society
Gregory Ralph Crane – University of Leipzig