Caroline Floyd's MA Thesis Oral Presentation: "A Social Network and Text Analysis of Charles Darwin’s Correspondence, 1835-1842"

A Social Network and Text Analysis of Charles Darwin’s Correspondence, 1835-1842
 
Popular and historical conceptions of Charles Darwin portray him as a lone scientific genius. My
thesis challenges this picture by using digital tools from the digital humanities to analyze the
collaborative process and extensive production timeline of his theory of evolution. Drawing on
material generously provided by the Darwin Correspondence Project at Cambridge University,
my work characterizes him as a project manager figure identified through trends in his
professional and personal communities. While traditional historical analysis has offered insight
into Darwin’s collaborative networks, my work adds to this by digitally re-creating the academic
network surrounding Darwin’s theory. I examined Darwin’s correspondences from 1835 to
1842, a period identified by historian Martin Rudwick (1982) as significant in the formulation of
his theory. Using the visualization tool Gephi, I generated social network visualizations
separately for “hidden figures”, academic colleagues and family members for each year, and I
used text-based analysis software (Voyant) to identify and compare key terms allowing
identification of content within given letters representative of an individual’s original idea.  
My research suggests Darwin increasingly relied upon his London-Cambridge professional
correspondence network for scientific communication between 1835 and 1842, and used
members of his family as sounding boards to test controversial elements of his theory. A shift in
Darwin’s internal perspective as a geologist to a naturalist is evident through the transition in
terminology of his letters. Ultimately, my larger project will determine what social network and
text analysis can tell us about the individual contributions of Darwin’s correspondents to the
development of his theory of evolution.
 
Advisor: Dr. Tara Abraham
Chair: Dr. Norman Smith
Committee Member: Dr. Kim Martin
External Examiner: Dr. Sofie Lachapelle