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. Students who attend will reflect on and extend the discussion exercise; those who do not will complete it asynchronously.

Readings

• Houston, Natalie M. “Text Analysis.” Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities.
• 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.

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?