Narratives of War

Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University has collected over 1000 narratives written by Ukrainian civilians about their experience of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. The objective of this research project is to use the narratives to discover commonalities in the language of the writers and to find whether there are linguistic markers of trauma across the narratives. To achieve this goal, we will use computational linguistic methods such as deep learning topic models, word frequency analysis, emotive word analysis, and word valence (positivity and negativity).This research will identify linguistic markers of living through war, and the trauma it causes. We will also analyze diagnostic tests that participants filled out in relation to their narratives. This analysis will assist mental health professionals who help war survivors. The results of this project can also be used for understanding the psychological impact of war on civilians.

Faculty Supervisor:

Victor Kuperman

Student:

Partner:

Lviv Polytechnic National University

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Information and Communications Technology

University:

McMaster University

Program: