This week focuses on AI as a tool for textual analysis — one of the most established areas of digital humanities. How does AI-assisted reading compare to close reading and distant reading traditions? You’ll get hands-on experience using Claude to analyze texts from your discipline.
NEH Workshop 2: AI for Textual Analysis (May 27, 10 AM - noon, CHDR) — This workshop explores practical approaches to using AI for textual analysis in humanities courses. This week’s discussion will build on the exercises started during the workshop: review the material on the workshop page — you are not responsible for everything, but you can select pieces most appropriate to your course goals and build on them for this week’s exercise.
Readings
- Houston, Natalie M. “Text Analysis.” Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities. (select and review at least two examples)
- Underwood, Ted. “A More Interesting Upside of AI.” The Stone and the Shell. July 2, 2025.
- Cohen, Dan. “The Writing Is on the Wall for Handwriting Recognition.” Humane Ingenuity.
Slides
Discussion Prompt
Workshop Exercise - Textual Analysis. Using Claude Projects and Artifacts, upload a set of texts relevant to your discipline and use Claude to analyze it (identify patterns, compare passages, build a concordance, and/or explore a corpus). Reflect on the strengths and limitations of AI-assisted textual analysis compared to traditional close reading. What would students learn from this exercise?