---
title: Learning Natural Language Processing through The Regender Project
osem_url: https://osem.seagl.org/conferences/seagl2019/program/proposals/644
beginning: '2019-11-16T10:45:00.000-08:00'
end: '2019-11-16T11:35:00.000-08:00'
resources:
  internet_archive_identifier: regender
presenters:
- name: Eva Monsen
  affiliation: Sunrise Data, Inc
  osem_url: https://osem.seagl.org/users/915
  gravatar_id: c03e0fb1a6fd830b18c6e7944ce7843f
  biography: I am a data engineer.
---

Research has shown that the way we use language influences the way we think. Can we begin to disentangle gender from our identities through language? Inspired by modern speculative fiction writers like Ann Leckie, the Regender Project aims to explore that question by using technology to alter the genders used in English text: changing male characters to female and vice versa, or assigning everyone the same gender pronoun. This talk will cover the beginning efforts to build a dictionary of English gendered words, as well as the technological challenges of swapping pronouns, gendered words and proper names in text, using open source natural language tools, machine learning, and common sense knowledge bases.
