I am a PhD candidate in Germanic Studies with a minor in Jewish Studies. My research focuses on narrative empathy, implication, violence, morality, and side-taking. I've been a member of the Experimental Humanities Lab at IU for the past five years and am interested in empirical studies in literature. I am currently working on my dissertation, which explores reactions to suffering in modern German literature. As part of this project, I am doing a textual analysis of the German word Mitleid(roughly translated as compassion) as it appears in a few 20th century texts. I suggest that depictions of suffering draw observers in as narrative bystanders, who then feel implicated alongside the feelings of compassion evoked from trauma stories. There are, however, different connotations associated with Mitleidthat I hoping to explore and visualize through digital humanities tools.