Department of German Language and Literature Dr. Maria Becker
Contact
Department of German Language and Literature
Heidelberg University
Hauptstr. 207–209
69117 Heidelberg
Office: Karlstr. 2, R 003 (ground floor, right corridor)
Phone: 06221/543250
Email: maria.becker@gs.uni-heidelberg.de
Office hours: by arrangement.

Welcome...
... to my website!
I am a research group leader in the Department of Linguistics at the German Department and at the Institute of Translation and Interpreting at Heidelberg University. In the winter semester 2026/27, I hold the interim W3 professorship for Digital Humanities at the University of Freiburg. After studying Linguistics, Philosophy and Psychology, I pursued a PhD in Computational Linguistics, motivated by my fascination with automated text analysis methods. My dissertation dealt with the automatic reconstruction of implicit knowledge in argumentative texts.
Since then, my research has focused on applying computational methods and machine learning, in particular large language models (LLMs), to linguistic questions as well as to research questions from the Digital Humanities and Social Sciences. I am also interested in corpus-linguistic methods, annotation studies, discourse pragmatics, contrastive linguistics, grammatical patterns in discourse and across text types, media linguistics, argumentation analysis, specialized language research, and science communication and knowledge transfer. You can find more information about my research and teaching further down on this page.
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CHAI Lab: Computational Humanities & AI
In my research group, an interdisciplinary project team investigates a range of research questions from the humanities and social sciences using computational approaches, in particular large language models and methods from (corpus) linguistics, computational linguistics and natural language processing. Feel free to visit our website!

Latest News
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Videos and Media Presence
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Projects (PI)
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Academic Background
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Since 06/2021 | Habilitation project at the Faculty of Modern Languages, Heidelberg University, working title Computational Pragmatics: Linguistically Informed Modeling of Moralizations with Large Language Models. Completion of the procedure expected in January 2027. |
04/2016 – 05/2021 | PhD in Computational Linguistics, Heidelberg University. Dissertation: Building Bridges. Reconstructing Implicit Information in Argumentative Texts Using Commonsense Knowledge. Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Anette Frank (Heidelberg University), Prof. Dr. Andreas Witt (IDS Mannheim) |
10/2012 – 03/2015 | Master's degree in German Linguistics (major) and Philosophy (minor), Heidelberg University |
08/2012 – 01/2015 | Master's degree in Language and Communication (major) and Psychology (minor), University of Mannheim |
10/2008 – 07/2012 | Bachelor's degree in German Studies (1st major) and Philosophy (2nd major), Heidelberg University |
Professional Experience
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Since 10/2026 | Interim Professor (W3) of Digital Humanities, University of Freiburg, Department of Linguistics and Digital Humanities Lab |
06/2024 – 09/2026 | Research Associate (50%) at the Institute of Translation and Interpreting, Heidelberg University |
06/2021 – 09/2026 | Research Associate (50%) at the Chair of German Linguistics, Heidelberg University |
07/2021 – 05/2024 | Research Associate (50%) at the Leibniz Institute for the German Language (IDS) Mannheim, Department of Digital Linguistics |
04/2017 – 03/2021 | Research Associate at the Institute of Computational Linguistics, Heidelberg University, in the project "Explain: Knowledge-Based Analysis of Argumentation" (part of the DFG Priority Programme "Robust Argumentation Machines") (doctoral position) |
04/2015 – 03/2017 | Research Associate at the Leibniz ScienceCampus "Empirical Linguistics & Computational Language Modeling", Leibniz Institute for the German Language Mannheim |
02/2015 – 01/2019 | Scientific Coordinator of the Discourse Lab: Teaching and Research Platform for Digital Discourse Analysis, Heidelberg University/Technical University of Darmstadt |
2010 – 2015 | Student assistant at the Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University (tutor and project assistant to Prof. Marcus Müller) and at the Leibniz Institute for the German Language Mannheim (projects Research and Teaching Corpus of Spoken German and Medical Communication) |
Science Management
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2025/2026 | Member of the university delegation for the evaluation of Heidelberg University within the Excellence Strategy |
Since 01/2025 | Founding member of the joint research group CAEDHET (Critical AI Engineering – Digital Humanities and Educational Transfer) |
Since 07/2024 | Representative of early-career researchers on the Research Council of Heidelberg University |
Since 06/2024 | Founding member of the Working Group on Large Language Models at the Faculty of Modern Languages, Heidelberg University |
07/2022 – 07/2024 | Spokesperson of the academic staff of the Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University |
Since 01/2022 | Organization of the study information days and first-semester orientation days at the Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University |
Since 07/2021 | Coordination of the linguistics tutorials at the Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University |
01/2019 – 01/2022 | Member of the Advisory Board of the Interdisciplinary Forum for Digital Textual Studies, Heidelberg University |
Since 01/2018 | Reviewing for (computational) linguistics journals (e.g. Discourse & Communication), edited volumes (e.g. Quantifying Methods in Discourse Studies, Palgrave) and conferences (e.g. ACL, COLING, LREC) |
02/2015 – 01/2019 | Scientific Coordinator of the Discourse Lab: Teaching and Research Platform for Digital Discourse Analysis, Heidelberg University/Technical University of Darmstadt |
Science Communication & Transfer
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Since 05/2026 | Participant in the Catalyst GER programme: nationwide programme for strengthening the transfer of research from the humanities and social sciences (SHAPE Impact Kollektiv); selected in a competitive process with the project Corpus-linguistic validation of AI-generated health information |
Since 10/2022 | Social Media Coordinator of the Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University |
10/2021 – 09/2022 | Young Marsilius Fellow for Interdisciplinarity and Science Communication (YMFP), a programme promoting the interdisciplinary connectivity of research and science communication |
02/2015 – 04/2019 | Blogger for the Discourse Lab on hypotheses.org |
03/2016 – 07/2016 | Organization of the lecture series “Germanisten im Beruf” (Careers for German Studies graduates), Heidelberg University (together with Dr. Jörn Stegmeier) |
International Mobility
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Since 12/2023 | Member of the project team Moral Climate Emotions, a cooperation between the Universities of Copenhagen and Heidelberg focusing on international conferences, workshops, courses and summer schools in Germany and Denmark and on networking between the two universities |
Conference and Workshop Organization
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09/2025 | Sprache und KI (Language and AI). Annual conference of the research network Sprache und Wissen, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (with Prof. E. Felder, M. Kückelhaus, J. Dengler and S. Bloching) |
09/2025 | AI and Human Values: Exploring technological, social, and normative perspectives. International summer school in cooperation with the Marsilius Kolleg, Heidelberg University (with Prof. F. Nüssel, Prof. N. Heinzelmann, Prof. M. Boutros, Prof. M. Gertz and T. Just) |
03/2023 | Panel "Cold Cases. Neubewertung qualitativer Diskursforschung unter Rückgriff auf digitale Methoden" (Revisiting qualitative discourse research with digital methods), Conference for Discourse Studies, University of Augsburg (together with Prof. Wolf Schünemann) |
09/2022 | Diskursgrammatik (Discourse Grammar). Annual conference of the research network Sprache und Wissen, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (together with Prof. Ekkehard Felder, Prof. Martin Reisigl and Prof. Marcus Müller) |
07/2022 | Session chair "Impact assessment and network analysis", Sunbelt 2022, online (together with Dr. Cathleen M. Stützer and Stephanie Gaaw) |
10/2019 | Digital Humanities – Disziplinen in Konkurrenz oder Kooperation? (Digital Humanities – disciplines in competition or cooperation?) Conference of the Interdisciplinary Forum for Digital Textual Studies, Heidelberg University (together with Dr. Stefan Karcher and Christopher Nunn) |
Since 01/2019 | Co-organization of international conferences and workshops of the research network Europe as a Discourse Community, among others in Warsaw, Milan, Paris and Heidelberg (see also International Mobility) |
10/2017 | Korpuslinguistische Werkzeuge im Vergleich (Corpus linguistic tools in comparison). Discourse Lab workshop, Heidelberg University (together with Prof. Marcus Müller and Dr. Jörn Stegmeier) |
02/2017 | Qualitative und quantitative Zugänge zu textuellen Korpora (Qualitative and quantitative approaches to text corpora). Discourse Lab workshop, Heidelberg University (together with Prof. Marcus Müller and Dr. Jörn Stegmeier) |
Further Training and Certificates
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02/2025 – 08/2025 | Management programme “Auf dem Weg zur Professur” (On the way to a professorship), Heidelberg University |
08/2024 – 12/2024 | Individual career coaching for postdocs, Heidelberg University |
10/2021 – 09/2022 | Young Marsilius Fellow for Interdisciplinarity and Science Communication |
09/2017 | Summer School of Digital Humanities: Distant Reading – Potentials and Applications. Heidelberg |
07/2017 | Machine Learning Summer School. Lisbon |
09/2016 | Summer School Argumentation: Computational and Linguistic Perspectives. Potsdam |
07/2015 – 08/2015 | Summer School Culture & Technology – Digital Humanities. Leipzig |
Teaching
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Winter term 2026/27 | Lecture Mensch, Maschine, Erkenntnis: Kritische Perspektiven auf Künstliche Intelligenz in den (Digital) Humanities (Human, machine, knowledge: critical perspectives on AI in the (digital) humanities). German Department, University of Freiburg. Master's seminar Digitale Methoden der Textanalyse: Korpuslinguistik, Natural Language Processing und Large Language Models (Digital methods of text analysis). German Department, University of Freiburg. Advanced seminar Prompt Engineering als Forschungsmethode: Künstliche Intelligenz zwischen Werkzeug und Forschungspartner (Prompt engineering as a research method). German Department, University of Freiburg. Practical course Annotation als Methode der Digital Humanities: Tools, Workflows und Anwendungen (Annotation as a digital humanities method). German Department, University of Freiburg. |
Summer term 2026 | Introductory/advanced seminar Humane und KI-Texte zwischen Sprache und Kultur (Human and AI texts between language and culture). Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University |
Winter term 2025/26 | Advanced seminar Medizinische Textproduktion im Zeitalter großer Sprachmodelle: Wissen, Argumentation, Verständlichkeit (Medical text production in the age of large language models; with Prof. Vahram Atayan). Institute of Translation and Interpreting, Heidelberg University. Introductory seminar Sprachwandel und neue Technologien: Von der Lautverschiebung zur Künstlichen Intelligenz (Language change and new technologies). Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University |
Summer term 2025 | Advanced seminar The Art of Prompting: Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion aus linguistischer Sicht (Human–machine interaction from a linguistic perspective; with Prof. E. Felder, Prof. V. Atayan and M. Ohta). Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University Advanced seminar Textanalyse mittels Korpuslinguistik oder Künstlicher Intelligenz – Möglichkeiten, Limitationen und Synergien (Text analysis with corpus linguistics or AI). Institute of Translation and Interpreting, Heidelberg University |
Winter term 2024/25 | Introductory and advanced seminar Lexik in der Fachsprache und ihre Verarbeitungsmöglichkeiten durch Künstliche Intelligenz (Specialized vocabulary and its processing by AI; with Prof. Ekkehard Felder and Prof. Vahram Atayan). Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University Advanced seminar Pragmatik in Heimat(en)-Diskursen: Emotionen und Moralisierung (Pragmatics in discourses on home: emotions and moralization; with Prof. Vahram Atayan, Prof. Waldemar Czachur and Dr. Annika Straube). Seminar within the international network European Discourse Community (4EU+/DAAD) in cooperation with the University of Warsaw and Sorbonne University, Heidelberg/Warsaw |
Summer term 2024 | Introductory seminar Kognitive Linguistik (Cognitive linguistics). Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University Advanced seminar Digitale Textanalyse: Methoden und Werkzeuge der Korpus- und Computerlinguistik (Digital text analysis; with Prof. Vahram Atayan). Institute of Translation and Interpreting, Heidelberg University Advanced seminar Annotationen als Werkzeug und Analysegrundlage in den digitalen Geisteswissenschaften (Annotation as a tool and basis for analysis in the digital humanities; with Prof. Vahram Atayan). Institute of Translation and Interpreting, Heidelberg University |
Winter term 2023/24 | Introductory and advanced seminar Textanalyse klassisch und digital – Fokus: Berufspraxis (Classical and digital text analysis – focus on professional practice; with Prof. Ekkehard Felder). Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University Advanced seminar Emotionen und Moralisierung im Diskurs um künstliche Intelligenz (Emotions and moralization in the discourse on AI; with Prof. Vahram Atayan, Prof. Waldemar Czachur and Dr. Annika Straube). Seminar within the international network European Discourse Community (4EU+/DAAD) in cooperation with the University of Warsaw, Heidelberg/Warsaw Advanced seminar Deep Learning Models for Automatic Discourse Analysis. Institute of Linguistics and Literary Studies, TU Darmstadt |
Summer term 2023 | Introduction to Linguistics. Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University Advanced seminar Annotation und Analyse von Sprachhandlungsmustern in mehrsprachigen Textkorpora (Annotation and analysis of speech act patterns in multilingual corpora; with Prof. Vahram Atayan). Institute of Translation and Interpreting, Heidelberg University Advanced seminar Computational knowledge analysis – Natural Language Processing with Python. Institute of Linguistics and Literary Studies, TU Darmstadt |
Winter term 2022/23 | Introductory and advanced seminar Linguistische Zugänge zu Korpora: Daten und Fakten (Linguistic approaches to corpora; with Prof. Ekkehard Felder). Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University Advanced seminar Computational linguistics for discourse analysis. Institute of Linguistics and Literary Studies, TU Darmstadt |
Summer term 2022 | Introduction to Linguistics. Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University Advanced seminar Computational knowledge analysis – Natural Language Processing with Python. Institute of Linguistics and Literary Studies, TU Darmstadt |
Winter term 2021/22 | Introductory seminar Soziolinguistik (Sociolinguistics). Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University Introduction to Linguistics. Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University Advanced seminar Computational linguistics for discourse analysis. Institute of Linguistics and Literary Studies, TU Darmstadt |
Summer term 2021 | Introductory seminar Linguistische Gesprächsanalyse (Linguistic conversation analysis). Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University |
Winter term 2020/21 | Introductory seminar Korpusgrammatik (Corpus grammar). Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University |
Summer term 2020 | Introductory seminar Zugänge zur Grammatik des Deutschen (Approaches to German grammar). Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University |
Winter term 2015/16 | Introductory seminar Grammatik der geschriebenen und gesprochenen Sprache (Grammar of written and spoken language). Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University |
Winter term 2010/11 – summer term 2015 | Tutorials in Linguistics. Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University |
Publications
A continuously updated list of publications with links to all full texts is also available on my ORCID and Google Scholar profiles.
Monographs
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Edited Volumes
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Becker, M., Dengler, J. und Felder, E. (erscheint 2026): KI und Autorschaft. Linguistische Perspektiven. Sonderheft der Zeitschrift für Diskursforschung. |
Articles and Book Chapters
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Posters
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2026: Peykarjou, S., Giner Torréns, M., Becker, M., Rodemer, R. und Kärtner, J.: Effective parental communication and children's compliance. 54. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychologie (DGPs), Luxemburg. |
2025: Dengler, J., Becker, M. und Felder, E.: Moralisieren in der Wissenschaftskommunikation aus linguistischer Perspektive. Tagung Epistemische Kämpfe in polarisierten Diskursen, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT). |
2025: Brocai, B. Papagno, I., Atayan, V., Babych, B., Becker, M., Felder, E., Getz, M., Reinartz, L., Schöneberger, S., Walther, M., Weis, M.: Wissen im Kontext: Kognitive und linguistische Aspekte der empirischen Erforschung medizinischer Texte. Tagung des Forschungsnetzwerks Linguistik und Medizin, Universität Bayreuth. |
2023: Becker, M.: Möglichkeiten der automatisierten Analyse komplexer Forschungsfragen aus den Digital Humanties. Eröffnungsfeier des Heidelberg Center for Digital Humanities, Heidelberg. |
2023: Becker, M. und Brocai, B.: Annotation und Analyse von Diskursakteuren in sprachlichen Moralisierungshandlungen. Jahrestagung des Forschungsnetzwerks Sprache und Wissen, Akademie der Wissenschaften, Heidelberg. |
2022: Becker, M.: Automatisierte Analyse komplexer Forschungsthemen aus den Geisteswissenschaften – Herausforderungen und Grenzen. 27. Deutscher Germanistentag, Paderborn. |
2022: Becker, M., Kiemes, C., Tapken, L.: Grammatik der Moralisierung. Jahrestagung des Forschungsnetzwerks Sprache und Wissen, Akademie der Wissenschaften, Heidelberg. |
2022: Witt, A. und Becker, M.: TextTransfer. Methode zur korpusgestützten Prognose von Impactmustern in wissenschaftlichen Texten. 12. Transferwerkstatt: Transfer als wichtiger Faktor der Zukunftsgestaltung. Berlin. |
2018: Becker, M., Staniek, M., Nastase, V., Palmer, A., Frank, A.: The Impact of Attention Mechanism, Context and Genre Information when Classifying Semantic Clause Types with Recurrent Neural Networks. 40th Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaften (DGfS). Stuttgart. |
2018: Becker, M., Staniek, M., Nastase, V., Palmer, A., Frank, A.: Automatisches Klassifizieren Semantischer Clauses: Modellierung von Kontext und Genremerkmalen mit Rekurrenten Neuronalen Netzwerken und dem Attention-Mechanismus. 54. Jahrestagung des Instituts für Deutsche Sprache. Mannheim. |
2017: Becker, M. and Meyer, J.: Quantitative Zugänge zu Sprache: Eine Studie zu Kontroversen in der Klimadebatte. Summer School of Digital Humanities: Distant Reading – Potentials and Applications. Heidelberg. |
Invited Talks
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Becker, M. (04/2026): Kann man Moralisierung messen? KI-gestützte Analysen öffentlicher Debatten. Forum Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft, Colloquium Fundamentale, KIT Karlsruhe. |
Becker, M. (04/2026): Zwischen Messung und Interpretation: Große Sprachmodelle zur Analyse normativer Diskurse. Ringvorlesung „Aktuelle Fragen der Sprach- und Translationswissenschaft”, Institut für Übersetzen und Dolmetschen Heidelberg. |
Becker, M. (03/2026): Einführung in die Grundlagen Generativer Sprachmodelle für Sprachwissenschaftler:innen. Universitäten Jerewan und Tiflis, Armenien/Georgien. |
Becker, M. (01/2026): Framing Climate Change: Insights from Digital Text Analysis. Moral Climate Emotions: Internationale Konferenz an der Heidelberg School of Education. |
Becker, M. (11/2025): Sprache, Moral und Zukunft: Diskursive Aushandlungen technischer Innovation. Agentur für Innovation in der Cybersicherheit, Halle. |
Becker, M. (09/2025): KI gestalten im Wertekompass: Vertrauen, Ethik und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung. AI in Action - Hackathon, Mannheim. |
Becker, M. (09/2025): Moralisierungen in der Wissenschaftskommunikation - Ursachen, Formen, Wirkungen. Statuskonferenz der Förderrichtlinie Wissenschaftskommunikationsforschung, Berlin. |
Becker, M. (06/2025): Moralisierungen in der Wissenschaftskommunikation am Beispiel des Klimawandeldiskurses. Brunswick Group, Frankfurt. |
Becker, M. und Brocai, B. (12/2024): Multilayer und Nesting as Challenges in Annotation Projects. Vortrag am Heidelberg Center for Digital Humanities im Rahmen der Workshopreihe "We've got the data - what now?". |
Becker, M. (10/2024): Automatisierte Analyse des gesellschaftlichen Impacts von Forschung mit Sprachmodellen. 3. Text+ Plenary 2024, Mannheim. |
Becker, M. (04/2024): Methoden zur korpusbasierten Wirkungsvorhersage in wissenschaftlichen Texten. Kolloquium des Deutschen Zentrums Für Hochschul- und Wissenschaftsforschung (DZHW), Hannover. |
Becker, M. (03/2024): Exploring (automatic) analysis of moralizations in argumentative contexts. Centre for Digital Humanities Utrecht. |
Becker, M. (01/2024): Automatisierte Prognose und Klassifikation des Impacts wissenschaftlicher Forschung innerhalb der Wissenschaft und darüber hinaus. Ringvorlesung „Aktuelle Fragen der Sprach- und Translationswissenschaft”, Institut für Übersetzen und Dolmetschen Heidelberg. |
Babych, B., Becker, M. und Atayan, V. (12/2023): Emotion and moralization in the discourse on Europe. Conference on Citizenship, Multilingualism, and Pluralities: Challenges and Opportunities for Europe in the 21st Century, Warschau. |
Witt, A. und Becker, M. (12/2023): TextTransfer. Methode zur korpusgestützten Prognose von Impactmustern in wissenschaftlichen Texten. 11. Transferwerkstatt: Transfer als wichtiger Faktor der Zukunftsgestaltung. Bonn. |
Becker, M. (10/2023): Moralisierungen im Klimawandeldiskurs. Interdisziplinäre Autumn School „Sachlichkeit als Problem der Wissensvermittlung am Beispiel des Klimawandeldiskurses“. Heidelberg School of Education. |
Becker, M. und Brocai, B. (09/2023): Annotation und Analyse von Diskursakteuren in sprachlichen Moralisierungshandlungen. Graduiertenworkshop des Forschungsnetzwerks Sprache und Wissen, Heidelberg. |
Becker, M. (07/2023): Qualitative und quantitative Analyse von Sprachhandlungsmustern in verschiedenen Sprachen und Domänen. Ringvorlesung „Aktuelle Fragen der Sprach- und Translationswissenschaft“, Institut für Übersetzen und Dolmetschen Heidelberg. |
Becker, M./Witt, A. (10/2022): TextTransfer: Methods for corpus-based prediction of impact in scientific texts. Lecture Series Data Science in Action, Mannheim. |
Becker, M. (04/2022): Annotation und Analyse von Moralisierungspraktiken in verschiedenen Wissensdomänen. Lecture Series des Heidelberg Center for Digital Humanities. |
Bender, M., Becker, M., Müller, M. (03/2020): Pragmalinguistische Annotation und Deep Learning. Jahrestagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Linguistische Pragmatik: “Digitale Pragmatik”. Hamburg. |
Becker, M. (02/2018): Die Rekonstruktion von Implizitem Wissen in Argumentativen Texten. Kolloquium Digitale Philologie. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Institut für Sprache und Literatur. |
Becker, M. (10/2018): Die Erfassung kontroverser Inhalte in Diskursen mithilfe quantitativer und qualitativer Methoden. Interdisziplinäres Forum digitaler Textwissenschaften. Keynote Talk für die Vortragsreihe des Wintersemesters 2018/2019. Heidelberg. |
Becker, M. (12/2018): Annotationen in der Korpus- und Computerlinguistik. Kolloquium Digitale Philologie. Technische Universität Darmstadt, Institut für Sprache und Literatur. |
Becker, M. (11/2016): Quantitative Zugänge zur Sprache. Kolloquium des Romanistischen Seminars, Universität Heidelberg. |
Müller, M., Becker, M. (03/2015): Establishing identity and alterity in epistemic cultures. 15th Conference of DiscourseNet “Discourses of Culture – Cultures of Discourse“. Belgrad, Serbien. |
