Workshop: Introduction to Text Analysis (Organized by UIC Digital Scholarship Hub)
February 13, 2026
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Calendar
Download iCal FileOrganized by the Digital Scholarship Hub, this virtual workshop Introduction to Text Analysis: At the Crossroads of Close Reading, Computational Algorithms, and Large Language Models is part of the UIC's Love Data Week.
Instructor: Heejoung Shin, PhD, MSLIS, MA, Clinical Assistant Professor and Digital Scholarship Librarian
Time: Friday, February 13, 12:00-1:30 PM
Register: http://go.library.uic.edu/TA
Please see the description of the workshop below. An accessible PDF flyer is also linked.
Introduction to Text Analysis: At the Crossroads of Close Reading, Computational Algorithms, and Large Language Models
This workshop is designed to introduce participants to the field of text analysis and its research workflow, which integrates text data collection, close reading, and the application of computational algorithms and large language models in the humanities. It is framed around two stylometric case studies focused on authorship detection: J. K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, who famously wrote The Cuckoo’s Calling under the male pen name Robert Galbraith, and T. S. Eliot, the modernist poet known for writing homoerotically-charged poems in private while simultaneously publishing more restrained public works. Together, we will consider several key questions. Can an author command antithetical voices across different works? If so, how can human readers and computational algorithms detect and measure this duality, and to what extent? How might human interpretations remain more holistic or meaningfully distinct?
By the end of the workshop, participants will understand the basics of stylometry and learn how to reframe interpretive research questions into forms that can be explored through quantitative methods within a text analysis workflow. Through hands-on activities, we will examine why combining both approaches is recommended – building a text corpus using traditional methods and experimenting with prompt engineering with Microsoft Copilot.
Date posted
Feb 2, 2026
Date updated
Feb 4, 2026