草榴社区

My project aims to train a ChatGPT model to analyze a large corpus of traditional Spanish songs collected by 草榴社区 students over ten years. The purpose of this research is to explore how oral traditions are transmitted across generations by identifying recurring motifs, linguistic features, and cultural themes. To achieve this, we will develop a set of analytical parameters that allow us to systematically trace how certain motifs reappear, evolve, or disappear over time, and ultimately define what constitutes a sustained oral tradition.

The methodology combines computational tools with folkloristic analysis. First, metadata will be created and standardized for each song, recording information such as performer, geographic origin, and thematic classification. These data points will be organized into spreadsheets to facilitate cross-comparison and longitudinal analysis. Word and motif frequency charts will be generated to highlight recurring patterns, while character frequency analysis will provide insights into narrative structures and cultural archetypes. Using established classification systems such as the Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) index and the Stith Thompson Motif-Index of Folk Literature, we will tag and classify the songs to connect them with broader traditions of folklore study.

Additionally, we will develop a Geographic Information System (GIS) map to visualize the spatial distribution of motifs and song types, allowing us to explore the relationship between geography and oral tradition. By integrating linguistic, cultural, and spatial data, the project not only preserves an important body of oral literature but also innovates by applying AI-assisted methods to the study of folklore. Ultimately, the findings will provide new insights into the persistence of cultural motifs across time and space, contributing to both folklore scholarship and digital humanities research.

This research is part of a larger book project that examines the grammars of social justice movements in the 1960s and 2010s, and the ways that those movements dealt with internal conflict. The larger book (under contract with Yale University Press) argues that appeals to wisdom traditions, both religious and secular, can help orient justice movements when cultural dynamics within and beyond movements become toxic. The book draws on first-person accounts, contemporaneous reporting, and historical scholarship to make sense of these dynamics鈥揳nd to provide lessons for social justice movements in the future. While drawing on scholarly methods and analysis, the book is aimed at an audience beyond just other professors. Its focus is on storytelling: narrative history that uses specific events and life stories to illustrate broader dynamics in social justice movements. While those movements range widely, from environmental to LGBT to race to gender, they all share a commitment to countering domination. I hypothesize that, in the 60s and in the 10s, these diverse movements shared common frames and encountered similar problems, so it makes sense to address them collectively. The comparison between two sets of movements, a half-century apart from each other, illustrates differences but also constant challenges that are faced during the pursuit of justice.