Abstract:
The process of providing spatial context for location information within text has
been explored by researchers in the domains of geographic information retrieval (GIR),
geosocial media analysis, computational linguistics, and the digital humanities. This
thesis will explore the topic of geographic information retrieval from text, using the
stories of Jules Verne, which are fictional, but set in the real world. Just as location
references, including place names and points of interest, within the text of Verne’s stories
can be geoparsed and geocoded to be placed on a map and visualize the journey, so can
location references within the text of intelligence gathered by the intelligence community
and law enforcement. Once location references are extracted, they can be verified using
outside sources and, by considering their spatial, temporal and thematic relevance, their
significance determined. All verified, relevant locations can be placed on a map. This
information can then be used to reconstruct the movement of a person of interest. The
methods in this thesis are used to document the positions of a subject through travels
eastward across three continents.
