PYCON UK 2025: Mapping Jane Austen’s Influence Across Space & Time with ClickHouse, Nataly Merezhuk

What do zombies, Bollywood, and romantasy have in common? Jane Austen. This talk demonstrates how to embed, clean, and analyze unstructured data using Python and ClickHouse. By tracing relationships between derivative works, it maps how one author continues to shape global culture—at scale. I didn’t start in tech—I started with a violin. For years, I performed at weddings and chamber concerts, and eventually at Bridgerton-themed parties. That’s when I first saw how deeply Jane Austen’s stories still resonate today. Her work continues to inspire films, communities, and entire genres. That persistence—250 years on—is something worth honoring. This talk intends to trace Austen's cultural influence with data. In this presentation, we will use Python to ingest, clean, and visualize semi-structured data. ClickHouse is the database of choice—used to store JSON, run full-text and vector search. Together, these tools make it easy to explore semantic relationships across large, messy datasets. This is aimed at a broad audience. If you’re new to coding or data analysis, you’ll see how approachable these tools have become. If you’re more experienced, you’ll get a look at how ClickHouse’s new JSON, vector, and full-text search features can support lightweight but powerful workflows—especially when paired with Python. Nataly Merezhuk is a frontend software engineer at ClickHouse with a past life as a jazz violinist. Initially a self-taught developer, she’s passionate about making coding accessible to everyone. Nataly lives in Washington D.C. with her cat Nina and loves coffee, board games, and rock climbing!