In Search of Zora/When Metadata Isn’t Enough: Rescuing the Experiences of Black Women Through Statistical Modeling

This study used statistical topic modeling to examine 800,000 documents within HathiTrust and JSTOR databases to identify the kinds of discourses in books, poetry, newspapers, and journals related to African American women. We examined a range of conversations that emerged, between 1746 and 2014, revealing insights about, and from African American women. We identified a metadata revision methodology that served to rescue 150 documents for or...