Topic modeling of the letters of Walter Benjamin through natural language processing

Christian C Johansson '23 conducts summer research with Dr.Yaghoobian

Allentown, PA (12/08/2022) — To apply multiple natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to the letters of Walter Benjamin. These models are focused on topic modeling. Gathered output data is analyzed and displayed numerically and graphically. Goals to draw correlations from the results in regards to topic, emotions and change over time.

"Working with Dr.Yaghoobian on analyzing Walter Benjamin's letters was a great practical use of computer science outside of its typical environment. I worked on creating a data set from his letters, a task while tedious sets the backbone for the quality of the analysis. My final task was the application of the topic modelling, while new overall to me, did allow for the use of knowledge learned in the AI course. The culmination of the research was the ability to answer a humanities question with applied computer models."