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Ben Schmidt

Director of Digital Humanities and Clinical Associate Professor of History

New York University

I am director of digital humanities and clinical associate professor of history at New York University. Previously, I was an assistant professor of history at Northeastern University and core faculty in the NuLab for Texts, Maps, and Networks.

I use humanistic data analysis and data visualization to help people think about the American past in new ways. My primary current research project is Creating Data, a digital monograph about the organization of information in the American state in the late 19th century. I also write occasionally about higher education (teaching evaluations and humanities policy), narrative anachronism and [plot structure], and political history.

At NYU, I teach courses in digital humanities and history of the United States and technology in the history department and through the program in Digital Humanities, of which I am the director.

I live in Manhattan.

For a third-person bio or photo, click here.

Interests

  • Data Visualization
  • Machine Learning
  • History
  • Text Analysis

Education

  • PhD in History, 2013

    Princeton University

  • AB in Social Studies, 2003

    Harvard University