iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by John Ladd

Erin A. McCarthy @erinannmcc.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Excited and only slightly terrified to have this accepted manuscript available. The Heresy of Vector Embeddings: Early Modern Manuscript Verse and LLMs between Meaning, Form, and History | Computational Humanities Research | Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.org

The Heresy of Vector Embeddings: Early Modern Manuscript Verse and LLMs between Meaning, Form, and History | Computational Humanities Research | Cambridge Core

The Heresy of Vector Embeddings: Early Modern Manuscript Verse and LLMs between Meaning, Form, and History

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 08/07/2026

Phrase Search guides you through the different CQL queries you might run on a single phrase. It has three outputs that search for the exact phrase, just the content words (in any order), and a string of part-of-speech tags (as close as we can get to syntax, for now). earlyprint.org/lab/tool_phr...

A screenshot of part of EarlyPrint's Phrase Search interface, showing results for the phrase "for whom the bell tolls." The image shows the content results, which search for keywords in the phrase in any order, and the form results, which look for similar part-of-speech sequences. Each set of results has buttons to run the same searches in Corpus Search and the Ngram Browser.

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 08/07/2026

The Bibliographia, which shows the entire EarlyPrint corpus as an interactive map, has a new sharper design and similarities based on the latest updates to the EP corpus. You can highlight specific subject headings, filter by date, and search for specific texts. earlyprint.org/bibliographi...

A screenshot of the EarlyPrint Bibliographia, an interactive scatter plot of more than 50,000 texts, with texts labeled as "Sermons, English", "Ballads", and "Controversial Literature" highlighted in blue, yellow, and purple respectively. On the left is a panel that allows the user to adjust the date range and selected subject headings. The 1667 edition of Paradise Lost is selected on the plot, and its metadata is shown in the box on the right.

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 08/07/2026

Because the backend of the new Ngram Browser is our Corpus Search, you can use the full flexibility of Corpus Query Language in searches. So you can search within specific book parts, like only in front matter. Here's a search for "forsooth" only in lines of verse: earlyprint.org/ngram/?q=%5B...

A screenshot showing a CQL Ngram Browser query for the word "forsooth" only within lines of verse in the corpus. It shows a blue line that goes gradually down over time, from 1550 to 1700.

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 08/07/2026

The Ngram Browser retains all the capabilities you're used to, but now you're no longer limited to 1- to 3-word sequences. Search for as long a phrase as you want! And compare phrases of different lengths to each other in the same search: earlyprint.org/ngram/?q=to+...

A screenshot of the EarlyPrint Ngram Browser, showing a search comparing the 2-word phrase "to be" to the 3-word phrase "not to be". "To be" is much more frequent and is represented by an orange line; "not to be" is represented by a much lower blue line.

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 08/07/2026

I made some exciting updates to the EarlyPrint Lab's tools over the past few weeks. You can search and explore printed books from 1500–1700 in new and more flexible ways! The Ngram Browser, Bibliographia, and Phrase Search tools have all been updated on earlyprint.org. Thread 👇

A screenshot of the EarlyPrint Ngram browser, a line plot with two lines represent the words "love" and "loue" showing that v replaces u around 1630. Also includes a bar plot showing the overall frequence of "love" is much higher than "loue".

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Reposted by John Ladd

Melanie Walsh @mellymeldubs.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Postdoc in Digital Humanities at WashU in St. Louis. Deadline is May 1. Also, St. Louis is wonderful. apply.interfolio.com/185361

Screenshot of Interfolio position that reads: "Postdoctoral Fellowship, Digital Humanities - Department of Comparative Literature & Thought, Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis - Danforth Campus: School of Arts & Sciences: Comparative Literature
Location
St. Louis, MO
Open Date
Apr 24, 2026

Deadline
May 01, 2026 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time
Description
The Department of Comparative Literature and Thought at Washington University in St. Louis invites applications for a two-year postdoctoral teaching fellowship in digital humanities. The fellowship period will run from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2028, with the possibility of a one-year extension.

In addition to pursuing their own research agenda, the postdoctoral fellow will teach the equivalent of four courses per year and is expected to participate fully in the thriving DH community on campus. Teaching responsibilities will include at least one regular course each Fall and Spring semester. Additional teaching responsibilities may include additional semester-long lab courses or a series of several short-term workshops. Fellows are expected to be in residence during the entire fellowship period, apart from research-related travel. Fellows will receive a salary of $64,380 per year, plus Washington University postdoctoral benefits and a $2,500 annual research/travel stipend."

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 30/03/2026

I'm so thrilled to finally see this in print, and I'm grateful to Jeffrey Alan Miller and Esther van Raamsdonk for shepherding the whole effort! Thanks also to Penn State Press for making the piece free to access for the next 90 days or so: scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/milton-...

scholarlypublishingcollective.org

Milton’s Precarious Data

ABSTRACT. Milton’s writing understands and disassembles data as a source of certainty. His use of data (yes, he used data frequently in his work) and his understanding of the data-obsessed movements o...

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 30/03/2026

This piece is part of the special issue Precarious Milton, which discusses forms of precarity from Milton's time to today, with special attention to the current precarious state of the academic job market. In the essay I reflect on my own experience moving from precarious roles to more stable ones.

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 30/03/2026

In the article I use a mixture of traditional close reading and digital close reading, examining Milton's use of data through text analysis. Along the way I take up William Empson's account of the word "all" in PL, adding to it the word "give" (the literal translation of the Latin term data).

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 30/03/2026

My new article, "Milton's Precarious Data," is out now in Milton Studies! It explores how Paradise Lost addresses problems of uncertainty in observed data, a brand new term at the time. scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/milton-...

scholarlypublishingcollective.org

Milton’s Precarious Data

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 26/03/2026

Very happy and excited to be returning to Dream Lab again this May to explore early modern book history with text analysis, social networks, and machine learning. Consider joining me in Philly!

A line chart from the N-Gram Browser on earlyprint.org. It shows the frequency of the words "happy" and "excited" from 1550 to 1700. Both words are increasing in frequency, but happy is increasing the most dramatically.

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Reposted by John Ladd

Center for Digital Humanities @princetoncdh.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Our December feature is now online! 📰 After his talk for our Modeling Culture series, @jrladd.com discusses how AI fits into a long history of text technologies—from the printing press to large language models, as well as his hopes/concerns for AI in humanities scholarship. Read the Q&A below!

cdh.princeton.edu

Human and Machine Intelligence in Networks of Early Modern Print: Q&A with John Ladd

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 23/09/2025

Thanks! Yes, developing MorphAdorner was the earliest stage of the project (which has had different names over the years). There’ve been lots of transformations and spot-checking since, so the texts themselves are the more authoritative source for spelling variations. morphadorner.northwestern.edu

morphadorner.northwestern.edu

MorphAdorner

MorphAdorner Home Page

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 23/09/2025

And for the original question, you can search for any individual word in its regularized form and get all its variant spellings with the EarlyPrint corpus search: eplab.artsci.wustl.edu/blacklab-fro... (Just click on advanced and search under “reg”.)

eplab.artsci.wustl.edu

EarlyPrint Corpus Search search

EarlyPrint Corpus Search provided by the Dutch Language Institute in Leiden.

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Reposted by John Ladd

Center for Digital Humanities @princetoncdh.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Sep 29: "Human and Machine Intelligence in Networks of Early Modern Print" with John Ladd (@jrladd.com), Assistant Professor in Computing and Information Studies at Washington & Jefferson College. Info/RSVP:

cdh.princeton.edu

Human and Machine Intelligence in Networks of Early Modern Print

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Reposted by John Ladd

Center for Digital Humanities @princetoncdh.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Modeling Culture explores AI not only as a technology to critique, but as a new mode of inquiry for research and interpretation. Three interconnected components will unfold in 2025-26: a faculty and grad seminar, a public lecture series, and an open-access curriculum. Public talk details in thread👇

cdh.princeton.edu

CDH Launches Modeling Culture: New Humanities Practices in the Age of AI

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Reposted by John Ladd

Chris Warren @chriswarren.info · 15/08/2025

After nearly two years running our homespun ESTC 📚📜, we’ll soon retire it at the request of the ESTC. Proud to have been part of the @print-and-prob.bsky.social team 💪, led by Nikolai Vogler, that helped our scholarly community in a time of need 💜

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 31/07/2025

Had a good time collaborating with @mellymeldubs.bsky.social and the AI for Humanists team on this! It also features some data we've been cooking up for @print-and-prob.bsky.social. Worth thinking about whether you have a research task that a local LLM could help with...

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Reposted by John Ladd

David Mimno @dmimno.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

New NEH-supported tutorial on running LLMs locally with ollama! Your laptop is more powerful than you think. Save money, privacy, and energy. aiforhumanists.com/tutorials/

aiforhumanists.com

Code Tutorials

The AI for Humanists project is developing resources to enable DH scholars to explore how large language models and AI technologies can be used in their research and teaching. Find an annotated biblio...

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 29/05/2025

Had a blast with so many new friends at the @pricelab.bsky.social’s Dream Lab workshop last week! For anyone interested in applying DH methods to book history questions, here’s a mini-site with a guide and all the materials from “Digital Approaches to Early Modern Books”: jrladd.com/digitalbooks/

jrladd.com

Digital Approaches to Early Modern Books

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 28/03/2025

For anyone interested in #DH and #CulturalAnalytics for early modern studies and book history: I'm very excited about the new Dream Lab course I'm teaching in May! Registration is open now: www.eventbrite.com/e/digital-ap...

eventbrite.com

Digital Approaches to Early Modern Books

Dream Lab 2025

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Reposted by John Ladd

The Price Lab @pricelab.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Dream Lab presents: “Digital Approaches to Early Modern Books," a #DH workshop hosted at the University of Pennsylvania this May.

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 21/01/2025

I'm so pumped to be teaching this course, and I'm really grateful to @pricelab.bsky.social and @folgerlibrary.bsky.social for making these scholarships available. Let's hang out in May and talk about all the amazing ways you can combine book history and DH!

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 16/01/2025

Glad this is still useful for folks! This is on my feature wishlist for the next iteration of Network Navigator, too (cc @zoeleblanc.bsky.social)

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Reposted by John Ladd

Melanie Walsh @mellymeldubs.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Elon Musk killed our WCW "plums in the icebox" Twitter bot, so I just resurrected it in this custom feed: bsky.app/profile/did:... If you are amused by wild poetic text reuse, you might enjoy. Shout out to my so sweet collaborator @jrladd.com, and take that, Elon!

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John Ladd @jrladd.com · 10/08/2024

🤝🏻 welcome to the club

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Reposted by John Ladd

Melanie Walsh @mellymeldubs.bsky.social · 09/08/2024

Everyone is laughing at me and @jrladd.com for wearing identical shades of millennial mustard. This is the inevitable outcome of grad school buddies #dh2024

Two grad school buddies in identical shades of millennial mustard

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Reposted by John Ladd

Journal of Digital History @jdighist.bsky.social · 18/07/2024

If you’ve seen our network analysis tool, Network Navigator, check out this article! It situates our work (@jrladd.com, @zoeleblanc.bsky.social) in the larger DH tools ecosystem and explores the role of network analysis in scholarly infrastructure. rb.gy/ppspn6

rb.gy

Journal of Digital History

The Journal of Digital History (JDH) is an international, academic, peer-reviewed and open-access journal. JDH will set new standards in history publishing based on the principle of multi-layered articles.

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Reposted by John Ladd

ArtButMakeItSports @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social · 07/04/2024

Study for ‘The Spanish Dance,’ by John Singer Sargent, 1879-80, 📸 via @cjzero.bsky.social

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Reposted by John Ladd

Melanie Walsh @mellymeldubs.bsky.social · 14/02/2024

🚨New AI for Humanists tutorials just dropped!🚨 We have new code notebooks for using LLMs to: - measure document similarity - classify texts with zero-shot prompting We explore narrative vs non-narrative texts, historical poetry, ChatGPT poetry, & book reviews. Tutorial effort led by Greg Yauney!

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