Martin Grandjean

(Université de Lausanne/EPFL)

Beyond visualization: how to make sense of complex network analyses in the humanities?

Network analysis is a fascinating tool because it seems to reveal the underlying structures of the objects we are studying. Its capacity for synthesis – a network image often gives the impression that it alone sums up the whole problem – is very useful, while its aesthetic characteristics make it a "must have" in many Digital Humanities publications. If visual analysis is indeed a significant part of our face-to-face with networks, for the obvious reason that visualization was developed by means of very intuitive graphic codes, it must nevertheless be studied as a mathematical object produced as a result of a specific data modeling. Without being a plea for a return to pure graph theory, this presentation will question our relationship to graph metrics and will evoke, by means of examples, strategies to combine them with the traditionally more qualitative methods of the humanities.

The talk will be held in English.

You can find the video recording of this event here.

In cooperation with the Center für Digitale Systeme (CeDiS).