Search Isn’t Research: Digital Humanities with Meredith Martin

Search Isn’t Research: Digital Humanities with Meredith Martin

From Policy Punchline by Princeton University

April 13, 2026 · 48 min

About this episode

The episode features a discussion with Professor Meredith Martin on the implications of digital tools in understanding data and meaning in the humanities.

Join hosts Maddie Feldman and Ollie Braden as they sit down with Professor Meredith Martin, Faculty Director of Princeton’s Center for Digital Humanities. This conversation explores how we search, interpret, and make meaning in an increasingly data-driven world. Professor Martin challenges the idea that data is neutral and that search equals knowledge, unpacking how digital tools shape both what we see and what we miss. We discuss the Princeton Prosody Archive, the limits of large language models, historians of the future, and why the humanities remain essential for understanding meaning in an AI-mediated age.

People in this episode

Hosts: Maddie Feldman, Ollie Braden

Guest: Meredith Martin

Topics covered

  • Digital Humanities
  • Data Interpretation
  • AI and Humanities
  • Search and Knowledge
  • Large Language Models
  • Meaning in Data

Keywords

  • Digital Humanities
  • Data-driven world
  • Search
  • Knowledge
  • AI
  • Large Language Models
  • Princeton Prosody Archive

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Princeton University, Princeton’s Center for Digital Humanities, Princeton Prosody Archive

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