“Computer models reveal how culture spreads, evolves, and disappears”

Whether it is language, folklore, or traditions, cultures are constantly changing. Using mathematical and computational models, Folgert Karsdorp uncovers the patterns that drive these changes. Since 1 February, he has held the Meertens Institute Endowed Chair in Computational Methods for the Study of Cultural Change at the Faculty of Humanities of Utrecht University. “My research studies how culture spreads, develops, and sometimes disappears,” he explains.

Using computational models to study the past 

“What fascinates me most are the underlying patterns,” Karsdorp says. “What mechanisms ensure that some forms of culture survive while others die out? And just as importantly, what don’t the data tell us? What blind spots arise from the way culture is passed on and collected?” To explore these questions, he works with computational models.

Computational models are mathematical and digital simulations. In the models Karsdorp develops, he combines historical data with research-based assumptions about human behaviour. The result is a tool that can simulate processes of cultural change and help him trace information that has been lost over time.

For me, the Chair means being able to work much more closely with students and PhD candidates.

A model, for example, might simulate how a folktale changes as it is retold time and again: some elements endure, while others disappear. Through his models, Karsdorp makes historical change more tangible. “From which Arthurian stories appear in medieval romances to which melodies were popular in the seventeenth century, and which ones vanished.”

Working with students and PhD candidates

“With Folgert Karsdorp, the Faculty of Humanities welcomes a scholar who uniquely combines computational methods with cultural history,” says Dean Thomas Vaessens. “His innovative research deepens our understanding of how culture changes. By explicitly examining what is missing from traditions and collections, he opens up fresh perspectives on the past and strengthens the humanities in the digital age.”

“For me, being appointed Endowed Professor means being able to work much more closely with students and PhD candidates,” Karsdorp says. “In an interdisciplinary field like mine, major breakthroughs often emerge from that interaction: when you formulate new questions together, test models, and refine theoretical insights.”