Photo of Rebecca Hicke

I am a third-year Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Cornell University, where I am advised by David Mimno and help maintain the AI for Humanists site. My research interests lie in Digital Humanities, Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning. Specifically, I explore how large language models (LLMs) may be applied to the study of literary texts, with a dual interest in developing research methods and tools for humanities scholars and using literary texts as challenging test cases with which to explore the real-world capabilities of LLMs. In the summer of 2024 I worked as a research assistant for Ross Deans Kristensen-McLachlan at the Center for Humanities Computing at Aarhus University.

In 2022, I graduated from Carleton College with a Bachelors of Arts in Computer Science and English and a minor in Digital Arts and Humanities. During this time I was advised by Eric Alexander and George Shuffelton. I also participated in the SUPERB REU at UC Berkeley in the summer of 2021, where I was advised by Sarah Chasins and Aditya Parameswaran.

Please feel free to reach out to me by email if you have any questions!


News
📝   A new paper on understanding literary style with LLMs is available as a preprint.
🌎   I will spend the summer of 2025 working as a PhD intern for the AIIL group at Microsoft Research!
🏆   Our paper on computationally identifying conceptual metaphors was shortlisted for the Best Short Paper Award at CHR 2024
📣   I presented our paper on computationally identifying conceptual metaphors at CHR 2024 in Aarhus
📝   A new paper on computationally identifying conceptual metaphors was accepted at CHR 2024
📝   A new paper on tracking topical trends in Chinese diaspora media was accepted at CHR 2024
🌎   I spent the summer at the Center for Humanities Computing at Aarhus University as a Visiting PhD Student