About

.txtlab is a laboratory for cultural analytics at McGill University directed by Andrew Piper.

Our aim is to use #AI and #NLP to better understand human storytelling. By combining literary insight, citizen participation, and artificial intelligence, our projects bridge humanistic and computational methods to build more transparent, interpretable models of narrative meaning. From studies of narrative emotions to multilingual story morals to children’s illustrated books, we explore a broad array of the ways stories intersect human experience.

Students come from a variety of backgrounds, including computer science, linguistics, languages and literatures, cultural studies, digital humanities, media and communication studies, math and statistics to some combination of the above.

If you are interested in working with me, you are encouraged to apply to our Master’s Program in Digital Humanities. If you are already at McGill and want to get involved, the best place to start is by taking one of my classes: LLCU 312 (AI and Storytelling) or LLCU 602 (Introduction to Digital Humanities). If you already have experience with text and data analysis, and are comfortable doing independent work, learning on your own and participating in group activities, then get in touch!

To learn more about past projects check out our publications and follow me on X @_akpiper.