Belonging and Mobility: Constructing Sentiment-embedded Event Evolutionary Graph for Diaspora Oral Archives

In this article, constructing a Sentiment-embedded Event Evolutionary Graph (SEEGraph) is proposed to capture the dynamic relationships and narratives embedded in the oral histories of diasporas. It provides data support for applying diaspora oral archives knowledge and realizes the effective transformation of “data-knowledge-application.” Firstly, diaspora oral archives are introduced as the research scope. Secondly, domain ontology is utilized to build a knowledge representation system for diaspora oral archives. Based on the ontology, events and event relations are defined to construct SEEGraph. Next, the South Asian Oral History Project (SAOHP) is selected as the data source. Events entities and relationships involved in the diaspora oral archives are extracted using Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools, which form the data layer of the event evolutionary map. SEEGraph is then constructed. This step stores and maps instances extracted from archival data, transforming data into knowledge. Finally, the knowledge graph is applied to analyze and explore the event evolutionary patterns, spatio-temporal and spatio-sentiment rules of historical events, and emotional changes of diasporas. This innovative methodology not only provides valuable insights into the experiences, identities, and connections of diaspora members but also offers a comprehensive framework for understanding the complex interplay between mobility and belonging in diaspora oral archives.