In recent years, Natural Language Processing (NLP) has increasingly intersected with the humanities and social sciences, offering new methodologies for analysing textual data, interpreting meaning, and modelling language-based phenomena. The potential for multi-disciplinary research using NLP methods is particularly great in computational semantics (CS), as its ability to process and represent meaning opens up innovative pathways for researchers in history, philosophy, literary studies, political science, etc. This workshop aims to explore how semantic models and tools can be leveraged to tackle traditional and emerging questions in the Humanities in a broader sense (Social Sciences, Law, Economics, Management, Literature, Languages, Art, …).
A major theme of semantics for interdisciplinary research (SIR) is the role of semantics in NLP applied to the humanities (both statistical and symbolic approaches).
One key focus will be the ways in which CS helps to address long-standing scientific problems in the humanities. For instance, how can distributional semantics assist in detecting conceptual shifts over time in historical texts? How do knowledge graphs and ontologies enable scholars to map complex intellectual traditions? By applying tools such as word embeddings, semantic parsing, and discourse analysis, researchers can uncover hidden structures and relationships within large textual corpora, offering fresh perspectives on classical debates.
Conversely, the humanities challenge CS by raising fundamental questions about meaning, ambiguity, and interpretation. Unlike in many technical domains, meaning in humanities-related texts is often fluid, context-dependent, and shaped by historical and cultural contingencies. This workshop will examine how hermeneutic traditions, literary theory, and philosophical insights can inform the development of more nuanced semantic models. Can Semantics approaches capture polysemy, metaphor, or irony in a way that aligns with humanistic inquiry? What are the ethical and epistemological limits of automated semantic interpretation?
By bridging the gap between NLP-driven semantics and the humanities, this workshop will foster interdisciplinary dialogue and showcase concrete applications of CS in literary analysis, historical research, and cultural studies. Through a combination of theoretical discussions and hands-on case studies, participants will gain a deeper understanding of both the technical capacities of NLP and the transformative impact of these tools on humanities scholarship.
Key Topics to Explore:
- CS and the humanities: issues, tools and applications.
- Quantitative and qualitative approaches as a breakthrough in Humnaities
- NLP transforms humanities issues
- Contributions and limitations for understanding meaning
- Link between formal semantics and neural models
- Ambiguity, polyphony and interpretation in Humnaities
- Ethics and bias in semantic modeling
- Interdisciplinary dialogue between AI, NLP and Humanities
Deadlines
- Deadline :
July 14thJuly 21st (everywhere on earth) - Notification : August 25th (everywhere on earth)
- Camera Ready : September 10th (everywhere on earth)
- Workshop : September 24th
Submission Information:
One type of submission is solicited and should be submitted no later than 14 July 2025 (anywhere on earth). Papers should describe original research and must not exceed 4 pages.
Acknowledgments, references, a limitations section (optional), an ethics statement (optional), and a technical appendix (optional, not subject to reviewing) do not count towards the page limit.
Accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings in the ACL Anthology. For inclusion in the proceedings, at least one author must register to the conference and present the paper in person. Papers will be accepted either for oral presentation or for a poster presentation.
Submissions should be fully anonymous to ensure double-blind reviewing.
Style Files:
The workshop follows the IWCS 2025 template. The papers should be formatted following the common two-column structure as used by IWCS 2021 (borrowed from ACL 2021). Please use these specific style-files or the Overleaf template.
Style files: https://iwcs2021.github.io/download/iwcs2021-templates.zip
Overleaf template: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/instructions-for-iwcs-2021-proceedings/fpnsyxqqpfbw
Submitting:
Papers should be submitted in PDF format.
Submission link: https://openreview.net/group?id=inria.fr/INRIA/Sémagramme/2025/SIR01
Please contact the program chairs if you have problems.
No Anonymity Period:
IWCS 2025 does not have an anonymity period. However, we ask you to be reasonable and not publicly advertise your preprint during (or right before) review.
Double Submission Policy:
Papers that have been or will be submitted to other meetings or publications must indicate this at submission time. Authors of papers accepted for presentation at IWCS 2025 must notify the program chairs by the camera-ready deadline as to whether the paper will be presented. All accepted papers must be presented at the conference to appear in the proceedings. We will not accept for publication or presentation papers that overlap significantly in content or results with papers that will be (or have been) published elsewhere.
Organizer
Maxime Amblard, Université de Lorraine, maxime.amblard@univ-lorraine.fr
Ellen Breitholtz, Gothenburg University, ellen.breitholtz@ling.gu.se
INSIGHT Project
The INSIGHT project proposes to bring together and animate the establishment’s different research and communities with a profoundly interdisciplinary focus on the processing of language data towards a high level of conceptuality in context. It will develop thoughtful solutions to support, develop, and match research in the fields of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) on one side, and Humanities on the other. The aim is to tackle a major scientific challenge for the research community while enabling the development of effective technological solutions for the benefit of citizens.
The INSIGHT project lies at the crossroads between research in the Humanities, AI, and NLP. We propose to strengthen this link based on a dual analysis of the research situation:
- A lack of understanding of the capabilities and possibilities offered by AI with regard to the scientific field in general.
- Development occurring outside the context of real-world uses and impacts of these technologies.
