The Jesuits and the Age of the Algorithm. An Introduction to Sentiment Analysis of Portuguese Overseas Colonial Correspondence

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-864X.2026.1.46315

Keywords:

digital humanities, sentiment analysis, Digital History, Jesuits, correspondence

Abstract

The article examines the impact of digital technologies on the historian’s craft and discusses the opportunities and challenges that these tools bring. The authors focus on analyzing the presence of the Society of Jesus in the
records of the Portuguese Overseas Historical Archives (AHU) between 1642 and 1822 and explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can contribute to the enrichment of historical research. The paper discusses the need for more dialogue between historians and technologies, without neglecting the human role in this process. In particular, it analyzes an algorithm known as “sentiment analysis” as an example of how data quality affects the performance of AI.

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Author Biographies

Agata Bloch, Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences, IH-PAN, Warsaw, Poland.

Doctor of History from the Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences, where she coordinates the project “Imperial commoners of Brazil and West Africa (1640-1822): global history from a correspondence network perspective”, funded by the Polish National Science Center. She is part of the research team of the MAPE project (Mapping the Atlantic Portuguese Empire).

Clodomir Santana, University of California, Davis, USA; Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences, IH-PAN, Warsaw, Poland.

Doctor of Computer Science from the University of Exeter, UK. External collaborator at the Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Academy of Sciences of Poland, where he conducts research on applications of computational intelligence techniques in the analysis of official correspondence spanning almost two centuries of the history of the Portuguese Empire in the Atlantic. He is part of the research team of the MAPE project (Mapping the Atlantic Portuguese Empire). He also works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Heart Failure Institute of the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), where he develops machine learning models applied to cardiovascular medicine. His research interests include digital history, network science, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing.

Marcia Amantino, Salgado de Oliveira University (Universo) and State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Brazil.

Doctor of Social History from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Professor in the PPGH in History at the Salgado de Oliveira University and adjunct professor in the Department of History at UERJ. Researches the economy and social insertion of the Society of Jesus in the captaincy of Rio de Janeiro and the enslavement of blacks and indigenous people. Leads the CNPq Research Group "Historicity of Bodies in American Societies". Is part of the research team of the MAPE project (Mapping the Atlantic Portuguese Empire).

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Published

2026-04-13

How to Cite

Błoch, A., Santana, C., & Amantino, M. (2026). The Jesuits and the Age of the Algorithm. An Introduction to Sentiment Analysis of Portuguese Overseas Colonial Correspondence. Estudos Ibero-Americanos, 52(1), e46315 . https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-864X.2026.1.46315

Issue

Vol. 52 No. 1 (2026): Single Volume - Continuous Flow

Section

Dossier: Digital History and Digital History of Education

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Copyright (c) 2026 Agata Błoch, Clodomir Santana, Marcia Amantino

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.