Matthew Wilkens

Matthew Wilkens is an Associate Professor of Information Science at Cornell University (currently affiliated with the College of Computing and Information Science). His research focuses on computational methods for studying literary and cultural history, including text mining, geolocation extraction, and genre detection. Prior to Cornell, he held roles at the University of Notre Dame and Wayne State University.

Education:

• PhD in Literature (Duke University)
• MA in English (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• MA in Physical Chemistry (UC Berkeley)
• BA in Chemistry and Philosophy (College of William and Mary)

Research Interests: Wilkens applies quantitative techniques to analyze large-scale literary trends, geographic representation in fiction, and critical data studies. Notable projects include the Textual Geographies initiative (funded by NEH) and co-investigator roles in Text Mining the Novel.

Recent Work Trends: Recent articles explore AI models' limitations in long-context understanding (Too Long, Didn't Model, 2025), anachronism in language models (Can Language Models Represent..., 2025), and spatial analysis of characters in fiction (Small Worlds, 2024). His work often bridges computational methods with humanities scholarship.

Awards & Grants:

• NEH Digital Humanities Implementation Grant ($325,000)
• ACLS Digital Innovation Fellowship
• Johns Hopkins University Press Monograph Publication

Labs/Teams: Directs the Textual Geographies project and collaborates with the Journal of Cultural Analytics. His lab engages in interdisciplinary work with geographers, historians, and computer scientists.