Jacob Forward
PhD candidate in History
My research focuses on the discourse of crisis in post-Cold War American politics, specifically the language and metaphors politicians use in connection with terrorism, immigration, natural disasters, and financial shocks. My method involves fine-tuning AI language models on carefully selected corpora of political speeches, and then querying the fine-tuned models to augment my discourse analysis.
Previously I read for an MPhil in American History at Cambridge (King’s College), and a BA in History at Oxford (Keble College). I have worked for History and Policy at the Institute for Historical Research and consulted on research projects at the School of Advanced Study.
Previously I read for an MPhil in American History at Cambridge (King’s College), and a BA in History at Oxford (Keble College). I have worked for History and Policy at the Institute for Historical Research and consulted on research projects at the School of Advanced Study.
My research interests include the debate over national security and civil liberties since 9/11, the dynamic between terrorism and federal authority, the psychology of non-literal language, digital history, and the ethics and opportunities of leveraging AI tools for humanities research.
Contact
Tags & Themes
Address
Email
jf743@cam.ac.uk
Links
Key publications
Forward, Jacob, and Xioachen Zhu, ‘The Last Word: Speaking with our Sources— The Possibilities and Pitfalls of AI Language Models in Historical Research’, Passport, 54, 2 (September 2023), 106-7. https://shafr.org/system/files/passport-09-2023-ai.pdf
Forward, Jacob, ‘The Return of Applied History’, On History, IHR, (November 2022). https://blog.history.ac.uk/2022/11/the-return-of-applied-history
Fox, Jo, David Coast, and Jacob Forward, ‘Covid Rumours in Historical Context - Two Policymaking Paradigms’, History and Policy, (February 2022). https://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/covid-rumours-in-historical-context-two-policymaking-paradigms
Forward, Jacob, ‘Digital Humanities Research at the Heart of the Project’, Covid Rumours in Historical Context, (February 2022). https://historyandrumour.blogs.sas.ac.uk/digital-humanities-research-at-the-heart-of-the-project
Forward, Jacob, ‘Historians and Think Tanks: Lessons from the U.S. Marketplace of Ideas’, History and Policy, (October 2021). https://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/historians-and-think-tanks-lessons-from-the-u.s-marketplace-of-ideas
Forward, Jacob, ‘The Return of Applied History’, On History, IHR, (November 2022). https://blog.history.ac.uk/2022/11/the-return-of-applied-history
Fox, Jo, David Coast, and Jacob Forward, ‘Covid Rumours in Historical Context - Two Policymaking Paradigms’, History and Policy, (February 2022). https://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/covid-rumours-in-historical-context-two-policymaking-paradigms
Forward, Jacob, ‘Digital Humanities Research at the Heart of the Project’, Covid Rumours in Historical Context, (February 2022). https://historyandrumour.blogs.sas.ac.uk/digital-humanities-research-at-the-heart-of-the-project
Forward, Jacob, ‘Historians and Think Tanks: Lessons from the U.S. Marketplace of Ideas’, History and Policy, (October 2021). https://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/historians-and-think-tanks-lessons-from-the-u.s-marketplace-of-ideas