James C. Caldwell
Bio
I'm a graduate student in the Department of History at The University of Western Ontario. My supervisor is Dr. William J. Turkel. I previously received a BA in Psychology, also from The University of Western Ontario. I'm currently writing a computational history of how aquatic pharmaceutical pollution transformed from an invisible environmental concern into a visible global research priority between 1958 and 2020. My project analyzes approximately 45,000 scientific publications using bibliometric methods and machine learning to trace how this field emerged and evolved.
My technical work includes developing the Modular Digital Methodologies Toolkit (MDMT), a desktop application that integrates OCR, transcription, AI-powered document analysis, and more for scholars getting started with computational methodologies (see the software tab for more information). I previously created a discourse analysis algorithm as part of a project with Dr. Janice Forsyth, where we analyzed over 80 years of government records for how sport and physical activity were used as tools of assimilation on-reserve in Canada. I also created a topic clustering algorithm for a summer project with Drs. Amy Bell and William Turkel, where we examined the changing use of language across nearly 100 years of occult periodicals.
I bring Python programming, natural language processing, data science, and generative AI skills to interdisciplinary projects. Past collaborations outside academia include computational analysis work with the Indigenous Hockey Research Network and Aboriginal Sport Circle.
Beyond research and teaching, I contribute to academic and social communities through leadership roles. I served as Co-Chair of the History Graduate Student Association, coordinating between graduate students and department administration. I also volunteer with social communities, such as serving as President of the UWO Tea Club where I managed a team of executives and organized campus-wide events.
Please feel free to reach out if you're interested in collaborating, or if you'd like to learn more about my work. I am very interested in interdisciplinary work and would be happy to bring my knowledge of computational methods to your project.
You can contact me at James.Caldwell.000@gmail.com