We are excited to share that Bolette Sandford Pedersen (University of Copenhagen), Mike Kestemont (University of Antwerp), Folgert Karsdorp (Meertens Institute, KNAW), and Katherine Bode (Australian National University) will join us as keynote speakers at DHNB 2026.
Bolette Sandford Pedersen is a professor in language technology and computational linguistics. She is particularly focused on the development of Danish resources for language technology and the language-centric AI. She leads the Centre for Language Technology.
Title: “Culture-Awareness in Large Language Models: Metaphors as a Cultural Marker.”
Abstract: Metaphors have been studied with great interest in linguistic theory for decades. They are considered an essential figure of speech, closely related to our cognitive system as well as to our culture. Lakoff and Johnson (in Metaphors we live by, 1980) state that the most fundamental values in a culture will be coherent with the metaphorical structure of the most fundamental concepts in the culture. With current advanced chatbots, using metaphors in communication is, however, no longer exclusive to humans. Recent Large Language Models (LLMs) are capable of both generating and analysing metaphors, although with limited precision and with a strong language bias, mostly towards English.
We present a study of Danish metaphors where we evaluate LLM-generated metaphor interpretations and show that current LLMs have much more success in explaining metaphors that are cross-cultural than those that are specific to the Danish language community. In particular, the sentiment of the culture-specific metaphors is very often skewed by the models. We claim that this colouring towards English poses a serious problem in the era of LLMs with regards to developing and maintaining cultural and linguistic diversity in low- and medium-resourced languages, such as the Nordic and Baltic ones. To this end, we present a new Danish metaphor benchmark, and argue that large-scale, monolingually-based benchmarking is a first step towards identifying and remedying these cultural deficits of LLMs.
https://researchprofiles.ku.dk/en/persons/bolette-sandford-pedersen/
Mike Kestemont & Folgert Karsdorp
Both are internationally recognized leaders in computational approaches to culture and literature, and co-authors of the influential textbook Humanities Data Analysis: Case Studies with Python. Their research has been pivotal in shaping the digital humanities, combining philological and literary expertise with advanced methods from data science, machine learning, and cultural evolution.
In their joint keynote, Kestemont and Karsdorp will bring together the combined expertise of two leading figures in computational humanities. As long-standing collaborators, they have played a central role in advancing the field, and their presence at the conference promises a unique opportunity to engage with cutting-edge perspectives at the intersection of literary studies, cultural history, and data science.
Title and abstract tba.
https://mikekestemont.github.io/
Katherine Bode
Bode is a leading scholar in digital and computational literary studies, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Her research has transformed how large-scale digital collections – particularly newspaper fiction – can be used to reframe literary history, reading practices, and cultural reception. She is the author of influential works including Reading by Numbers: Recalibrating the Literary Field and A World of Fiction: Digital Collections and the Future of Literary History and has led major projects supported by the Australian Research Council.
Through her pioneering scholarship, Bode has played a central role in advancing the digital humanities, offering new ways to connect literary scholarship with the possibilities of computational analysis.
Title and abstract tba.
https://researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/persons/katherine-bode/