Chronicling Language, Gender, and Sexuality Research through Digital Text Analysis

Author: Aidan Niebauer

Field of Study: Social Sciences

Program Affiliation: Library Research Scholars

Faculty Mentors: Ruth Carpenter, Halie Kerns

Easel: 5

Timeslot: Midday

Abstract: This project is an exploratory analysis of the field of language, gender, and sexuality using the journal Language in Society, a key publication within the fields of sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. Chronicling over 50 years of scholarly research, a corpus of research will be analyzed with digital text analysis methods using Python, including topic modeling and sentiment analysis. The project aims to empirically analyze how a) notions of gender and sexuality are represented in linguistics research b) how language surrounding gender and sexuality is represented, discussed, and challenged through research, and c) how language regarding sexual and gender identity has evolved over the course of the journal’s history and how it mirrors the contemporary global and sociopolitical history of gender and sexuality. Preliminary research has indicated trends in men and women’s conversational differences in the 1970s and 1980s, with trends in non-binary language and sexuality emerging in the 21st century.