Graham alexander Sack

PhD Candidate, English & Comparative Literature

Columbia University

MA, English & Comparative Literature

Columbia University, 2011

MSc with Merit, Economics

London School of Economics, 2010

AB cum Laude, Physics

Harvard College, 2003

“Character Networks for Narrative Generation: Structural Balance Theory and the Emergence of Proto-Narratives” in Complexity and the Human Experience: Modeling Complexity in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Paul A. Youngman, Mirsad Hadzikadic (Eds.). Singapore: Pan Stanford Publishing, 2014.

(An earlier version of this paper is available in: Proceedings of 2013 Workshop on Computational Models of Narrative (CMN 2013), Mark A. Finlayson and Bernhard Fisseni and Benedikt Lowe and Jan Christoph Meister (Eds.). August 4-6, 2013 - Hamburg, Germany. ISBN 978-3-939897-57-6, OASICS Vol. 32.)

“Hopfield and Hebbian Models of Belief Polarization: Neural Networks, Social Contexts.” Computational Social Science Society of the Americas. Santa Fe, NM, 2013.

"Simulating the Cultural Evolution of Literary Genres." GECCO (Companion) 2013: 1399-1406. Christian Blum, Enrique Alba (Eds.): Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, July 6-10, 2013, Companion Material Proceedings. ACM 2013 ISBN 978-1-4503-1964-5.

(You can also view my video lecture from DH2014)

"Simulating Plot: Towards a Generative Model of Narrative Structure." Complex Adaptive Systems: Energy, Information, and Intelligence. Proceedings from the 2011 Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Fall Symposium (FS-11-03).

** And here is a profile of my research in the Digital Humanities:

“Beyond the Binary: Digital Humanities Today.” Superscript Magazine, Columbia University. Volume 2, Issue 2, Spring 2012.

Digital Humanities (July 2014, Switzerland): Leading international conference on Digital Humanities research; organized by ADHO. Papers presented: (1) Simulating the Cultural Evolution of Literary Genres, (2) Computational Models of Narrative: Using AI to Operationalize Russian Formalist and French Structuralist Theories.

Political Networks 2014 (May 2014, McGill University): 7th annual conference on subfield of political and network science. Paper presented: “Neural Networks, Social Contexts: A Hopfield Model for Opinion Polarization.”

Canadian Society for Digital Humanities 2014 (May 2014, Brock University): Joint panel organized by ACCUTE on “Language, Diversity, Dialogism” (Susan Brown & Ruth Knechtel, Chairs). Paper presented: On the Uses and Abuses of Literary Capital: Culturomics, Translation Networks, and The World Republic of Letters.

Digital Humanities Center, Columbia Library (April 2014, Columbia University): Invited lecture: “Quantifying Imaginary Social Forms: Character Networks in the 19th Century British Novel.” Organizer: Alex Gil.

International Political Science Association World Congress (July, 2014, Montreal, Quebec): Panel on “Trust and Participation” in Comparative Politics and Institutions. Paper presented: “Neural Networks, Social Contexts: A Hopfield Model for Opinion Polarization.”

3rd International Conference on Cross-Cultural Decision Making (July, 2014, Krakow, Poland): Co-located Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE 2014). Paper presented: “Neural Networks, Social Contexts: A Hopfield Model for Opinion Polarization.”

9th International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Science (June, 2014, Vancouver, BC): Paper presented: “Neural Networks, Social Contexts: A Hopfield Model for Opinion Polarization.”

International Conference on Narrative (March 2014, MIT): Panel organizer and speaker. Panel: “Computational Models of Narrative: Using AI to Operationalize Russian Formalist and French Structuralist Theories.” Paper presented: “Character Networks for Narrative Generation” Other speakers: Pablo Gervas (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Mark Finlayson (MIT CSAIL)

SPSP 2014: Dynamical Systems and Computational Modeling in Social Psychology (February 2014, Austin, TX): Society for Personality and Social Psychology 2014 Annual Meeting Preconference. Paper presented: “Neural Networks, Social Contexts: A Hopfield Model for Opinion Polarization.”

Computational Social Science Society of the Americas (August 2013, Santa Fe, NM): International conference on applications on computational and generative social science techniques. Paper presented: Hopfield and Hebbian Models of Belief Polarization: Neural Networks, Social Contexts. *Audience Choice Award for Best Presentation.

Computational Models of Narrative 2013 (August 2013, Hamburg Universitat): Interdisciplinary workshop with researchers in AI, narratology, and related disciplines. Co-located with 2013 Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Paper presented and published in conference proceedings: Character Networks for Narrative Generation: Structural Balance Theory and the Emergence of Proto-Narratives. *Awarded Best Student Paper.

ECoMASS / GECCO (July 2013, Amsterdam): Evolutionary Computation and Multi-Agent Systems and Simulation (EcoMass) seventh annual workshop (ECoMass), co-located with Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO). Paper presented and published in conference proceedings: Simulating the Cultural Evolution of Literary Genres.

Digital Humanities (July 2013, University of Nebraska-Lincoln): Leading international conference on Digital Humanities research and pedagogy organized by ADHO. Paper presented: Simulating Plot: Towards a Generative Theory of Narrative Structure. *Paper Awarded Bursary

Complexity Mini-Conference (May 2013, U Michigan): Invited speaker at interdisciplinary mini-conference organized by University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Complex Systems. Paper presented: Simulating the Cultural Evolution of Literary Genres.

Stanford Literary Lab (April 2013, Stanford University): Invited speaker. Topic: “Operationalizing Narrative Attention: Proxies, Instrumental Variables, and Algorithms.”

Modeling and the Humanities (April 2013, SpringSim): Conference on applications of computer simulation and agent-based modeling to questions in the humanities. Paper accepted: Simulating the Cultural Evolution of Literary Genres. Awarded best paper in panel.

Paradigmatic Conflict and Crisis (February 2013, Columbia University): Conference organized by Columbia’s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) Departments. Invited speaker on panel entitled “Decolonizing the Digital Humanities. Paper presented: On the Uses and Abuses of Literary Capital: Culturomics, Translation Networks, and The World Republic of Letters.

Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities and Computer Science (November 2012, U Chicago): DHCS brings together humanists and computer scientists to explore new directions for digital humanities research. Paper presented: Simulating the Cultural Evolution of Literary Genres.

Intelligent Narrative Technologies 5 (October 2012, Stanford University): Workshop with members of the AI, narratology, and interactive entertainment communities. Co-located with 8th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Interactive Digital Entertainment. Paper presented: Character Networks for Narrative Generation.

North American Victorian Studies Association (Sept 2012, UW-Madison): Conference topic: Victorian Networks. Paper presented: Quantifying Imaginary Social Forms: Character Networks in the 19th Century British Novel.

Santa Fe Institute Invited Speaker (Sept 2012, Santa Fe, NM): Seminar presentation. Paper presented: Simulating the Cultural Evolution of Literary Genres.

Computational Social Science Society of the Americas (Sept 2012, Santa Fe, NM): International conference on applications on computational and generative social science techniques. Paper presented: Simulating the Cultural Evolution of Literary Genres

Swarmfest (July 2012, UNC Charlotte): Conference on applications of and tools and techniques related to agent-based modeling. Paper presented: Simulating the Cultural Evolution of Literary Genres

Santa Fe Institute Complex Systems Summer School (June 2012, Santa Fe, NM): The CSSS is SFI’s flagship program for training young academics in the theory, methods, and application of complex systems. Project developed while in residence: Simulating the Cultural Evolution of Literary Genres.

Human Complexity (May 2012, UNC Charlotte): First annual conference on complexity in human experience and modeling complexity in the humanities and social sciences. Organized by UNC Charlotte Complex Systems Institute. Paper presented: Simulating Plot: Towards a Generative Theory of Narrative Structure.

Computational Models of Narrative (May 2012, Istanbul): Interdisciplinary workshop with researchers in AI, narratology, and related disciplines. Co-located at LREC 2012. Paper presented: Simulating Plot: Towards a Generative Theory of Narrative Structure.

International Conference on Narrative (Mar 2012, Las Vegas): Leading international conference on narrative theory and narratology. Paper to be presented: Simulating Plot: Towards a Generative Model of Narrative Structure.

American Philosophical Association (Feb 2012, Chicago): Central Division Meeting. Invited speaker on Computer Simulation in the Humanities panel.

AAAI Fall Symposium (Nov 2011, Washington DC): Fall Symposium of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence track on Energy, Information, and Intelligence in Complex Adaptive Systems (Organizer: Ted Carmichael). Paper presented: Simulating Plot: Towards a Generative Theory of Narrative Structure.

NEH Computer Simulation in the Humanities Workshop (June 2011, UNC Charlotte) and Bounceback Conference (May 2012, UNC Charlotte): NEH sponsored Institute for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities (IATDH) workshop focused on the application of complex adaptive systems research, agent based modeling, and artificial neural networks to the Humanities.

International Conference on Narrative (Apr 2011, St. Louis): Paper presented: Quantifying Imaginary Social Forms: Character Networks in the 19th Century British Novel.

Stanford Literary Laboratory (Jan 2011): First external speaker invited to present to Franco Moretti’s newly formed Literary Laboratory at Stanford University. Paper presented: Bleak House and Weak Social Networks.

NEH Network Analysis for the Humanities Workshop (Aug 2010, UCLA) and Bounceback Conference (Oct 2011, UCLA): NEH IATDH workshop on the application of network analysis to research problems in the Humanities. Paper presented: Character Networks and Relationship Patterns in the 19th Century British Novel.

Open Syllabus Project: OSP is building the first large-scale online database of university course syllabi as a platform for new research, teaching, and administrative tools.

University of Michigan Center for the Study of Complex Systems: Member of research team on computational modeling of belief polarization. Principal Investigator: Patrick Grim.

Stanford Literary Laboratory: Member since 2010. Principal Investigators: Franco Moretti.

This July - August I will be teaching the first pure digital humanities methodology course at Columbia University:

ENGL S3024. Introduction to the Digital Humanities:

Computational Methods for Literary and Cultural Criticism

Course Description: Over the past decade, Digital Humanities researchers have adopted a number of cutting edge methodologies, many of them notably quantitative and computational. The purpose of this course is to make these methods accessible to undergraduate and graduate students and to facilitate their application to literary and cultural criticism. The course has several objectives: (1) to survey examples of recent computational criticism, including authorship attribution, computational stylistics, topic analysis, network analysis, and computational narratology; (2) to help students gain a working understanding of available software packages useful to literary and cultural research (e.g., WORDij, Sci2, R, etc.) and data analysis techniques (e.g., word frequency and word pair analysis, network extraction, etc.); (3) to situate recent computational criticism in relationship to earlier critical movements—particularly Structuralism and Russian Formalism.