The group uses the technologies offered by artificial intelligence, data science, knowledge extraction and natural language processing, as well as research and investigation techniques from the social sciences to question certain issues of our contemporary societies, such as political extremism, the cultural practices of young people or the problems of addiction linked to digital uses.

Research thematics

The group brings together three permanent researchers: a researcher in history and digital humanities, a researcher in sociology working in particular on the study of practices and addiction issues related to gambling, and a researcher in computer science, specialising in knowledge extraction and knowledge-intensive processes. Although they belong to different disciplines, they work together to put information systems at the service of digital humanities. Combining their expertise in the humanities and social sciences and in computer science, they also adopt a sociological and historical approach to science, governance and digital practices, which is reflected in the following research themes:

• History of political ideas (Third Republic France)
• Literary history of the Belle Epoque
• History of children’s literature
• History of the two World Wars
• Sociology of play, leisure and cultural practices
• Sociology of behavioural addictions and mental health
• Sociology of deviance, crime and prison
• Sociology of education and informal learning
• Digital humanities
• Data mining, text mining, and data visualization
• Knowledge extraction
• Knowledge-intensive processes

In addition, in connection with these themes, they develop digital methods adapted to the study of the data they analyse, while emphasising the generic aspect of the latter for many fields of the humanities and social sciences, such as:

• Knowledge extraction from historical documents
• Development of generic methods for digital history
• Analysis and visualisation of the circulation of political ideas
• Analysis and visualisation of online gambling practices
• Reuse of pedagogical materials for teaching

Applications

The DMHSS group’s research has a twofold application objective: on the one hand, by providing computer science researchers with data enabling them to evaluate the methods they develop, and on the other hand, by collaborating in the development of tools and digital solutions that can be reused by the research community and civil society.

The applications developed from our works are diverse:

• Processing of digitised historical documents
• Tools for the detection and prevention of gambling addiction
• Innovative visualization of data in human and social sciences (data storytelling)
• Technical support for pedagogy

Based on these applications, the group works closely with other LRE groups (IMAGE group and AI group) and with the MetaLab of EPITA, but also with various partners outside EPITA.

Collaborations

We collaborate in particular with:

• Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France)
• LARHRA
• Centre de Recherches Historiques (EHESS)
• Institut national de l’information géographique et forestière (IGN)
• Ecole nationale des chartes
• Centre de Recherche Interuniversitaire Expérience Ressources Culturelles Éducation EXPERICE (Université Sorbonne Paris Nord)
• Centre d’Anthropologie, Sociologie, Psychologie - Études et Recherche CASPER (Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles)
• Mission interministérielle de lutte contre les drogues et les conduites addictives MILDECA

Projects and Contributions

Ongoing projects are:

• AGODA (Analyse sémantique et Graphes relationnels pour l’Ouverture et l’étude des Débats à l’Assemblée nationale), funded by the DataLab of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (2021-2023)
• JAP (Les jeux d’argent dans la population carcérale : Pratiques du jeu, carrières de joueurs, problématiques d’addiction), funded by the MILDECA (2022-2023)
• CODEG (Commercial determinants of harm in the digital economy of gambling)
• CODInG (Clinical and Online Data Investigation in Gambling)

With the IMAGE group, DMHSS also contributes to the SoduCo project (Social Dynamics in Urban Context: open tools, models, and data – Paris and its suburbs, 1789-1950) funded by the ANR (2019-2023).

The major conferences in which we participate are the following:

• Digital Humanities: Digital Humanities, Humanistica, Digital Humanities, Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries Conference, Computational Methods in the Humanities, Computational Humanities Research
• Sociology & Addictology: Congress of the French Association of Sociology, European Forum Addiction and Society, etc.
• Computer Science: LREC, RCIS, InforSID, KES, EGC, ECMLPKDD

The main journals to which we contribute are :

• Digital Humanities : Digital Humanities Quarterly, Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, Digital Humanities, ACL Anthology
• History: 20 & 21, Revue d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, Histoire & mesure, etc.
• Sociology & Addictology: Sciences du jeu, Leisure and society, Sciences sociales et santé, Scientific Reports, etc.
• Computer Sciences: Information Processing Letters, Information Systems, Information Processing & Management