On January 17th, the online seminar “Potentialities and Limits of Text Analysis Programs Using Artificial Intelligence” was held, organized through a partnership between the Galabra Network, MigraMediaActs, and the Virtual Museum of Lusophony, as part of the Communication and Diversity Seminar. The event took place via Zoom, moderated by Alberto Sá from the University of Minho, and featured presentations addressing the potentialities and limitations of text analysis tools, particularly Iramuteq (Interface de R pour les Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires) and IATexto (a Text Analysis Interface based on Statistics and Artificial Intelligence).

In this seminar, Helena G. Do Val and Irene López, from the University of Santiago de Compostela, gave a presentation titled “Exploring Iramuteq: Potentialities and Limits in Literary Text Analysis,” while Yuri Sousa, from the Federal University of Bahia, discussed the topic “IATexto: A Computational Program for Textual Data Analysis Using Statistics and Machine Learning.” Meanwhile, Luiza Lins, from the University of Minho, presented the case study “BUALA: Notes on the Use of IATexto in Identifying Thematic Categories, Semantic Networks, and Longitudinal Trends.”

The seminar highlighted the importance of text analysis software in fields such as literature and the social sciences, while also addressing challenges and emphasizing the need to align theoretical and methodological interests when choosing tools like these software programs. Additionally, it underscored the importance of maintaining a critical approach toward the tools, the various strategies employed, and the role of researchers in the analysis of qualitative data.

Seminar on Communication and Diversity: Potentialities and Limits of Textual Analysis Using Artificial Intelligence

Helena Do Val is a pre-doctoral researcher at the University of Santiago de Compostela. She holds a degree in English Language and Literature, with a minor in Lusophone Language and Literature. Since her master’s degree in Literary and Cultural Studies in 2019, she has focused her research on Mozambican culture and literature. Currently, she is working on her doctoral thesis, studying post-independence Mozambican novels within an anthropological-literary theoretical-methodological framework.

Luiza Lins is a postdoctoral fellow at the Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS) at the University of Minho. She holds a PhD in Social Psychology from the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB)/Brazil and a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Psychology from the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS)/Brazil. She completed her doctoral internship at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM)/Spain, where she conducted research in the Department of Social Anthropology and Social Psychology. Her research focuses on intergroup relations, social representations, intersectionality, prejudice, and social identities. She is currently a team member of the project “MigraMediaActs – Migrations, Media, and Activism in Portuguese: Decolonizing Media Landscapes and Imagining Alternative Futures.”

Irene López Batalla is a doctoral candidate in the Literary and Cultural Studies program at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC). Her thesis project analyzes the transnational circulation of contemporary Brazilian marginal-peripheral literature. Her work focuses on the dynamics of production and circulation of authors associated with this literary-cultural movement in the periphery of São Paulo.

Yuri Sousa holds a PhD in Psychology (2017) from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE/Brazil), with a doctoral internship (2014–2015) at the Social Psychology Laboratory of Aix-Marseille University (AMU/France). He is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Psychology at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA/Brazil) and a researcher in the Graduate Program in Psychology (PPGPSI/UFBA). He is currently a postdoctoral fellow abroad as part of the international cooperation project “Scientific Innovations, Social Representations, and Cross-Cultural Comparison Brazil/France: Theoretical-Methodological Triangulation Strategies in Psychosocial Research” (MCTI/CNPq/UFPE). During his postdoctoral research internship, he will work on the project “Development and Applications in Psychosocial Research of the Text Analysis Interface Based on Artificial Intelligence (IATexto)” at the Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS) within the scope of the “MigraMediaActs – Migrations, Media, and Activism in Portuguese: Decolonizing Media Landscapes and Imagining Alternative Futures” project.