About

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

We have a variety of on-going projects, with a particular focus on questions of cultural inequality as well as the nature of fictional storytelling. Students are currently using data to study:

  • streaming bias on Spotify
  • the clustering of editorial behaviour on Wikipedia
  • the nature of queer fan fiction
  • implicit gender norms around invisible voices in the media (from radio to audiobooks)
  • superheroines
  • ramblingness in prose and its association with gendered identity
  • abusive political speech on Reddit
  • inferring causal structures in narrative (ok that one’s all mine but whatever).

Students come from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from cultural studies to linguistics to political science to classics to languages and literature to computer science to some combination of the above. If you are an undergraduate or graduate student interested in these types of cultural questions, have some 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 Twitter @_akpiper.