Machine Learning applications in the Social Sciences and the Humanities

Machine Learning, a recurrent and obvious topic in Science and Technology, will also radically change the way research is carried out in the Social Sciences and the Humanities in a near future. A close cooperation between SSH scholars and computer scientists could have a huge impact on both SSH and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) related research topics. On the one hand, social scientists and humanities scholars may not be able to design and implement themselves the machine learning algorithms they need for their research. The role of a linguist, a historian or a social scientist should be thus to help computer scientists outperform current machine learning models by offering them theoretical approaches both could adapt together to improve their accuracy. This conference, organised by the Social Sciences and Humanities Working Group of the Coimbra Group, will explore the practical possibilities Machine Learning offers to selected research fields within SSH, particularly linguistics, literature, musicology, and sociology.