Module 6. Next Steps: From Neo4j Basics to Your Own Humanities Graph

Course 4. Building Graphs in Neo4j
Estimated Time: 20–25 minutes

🧭 Module Objectives

Reflect on what you’ve learned about Neo4j and graph thinking.
Identify opportunities to expand or refine your graph.
Know where to find reliable documentation and advanced learning resources.
Understand how this course connects to the Wellespring Project and future courses.

Looking Back: What You've Accomplished

Over the last several modules, you’ve:

Created a Neo4j Aura account and connected to your first clouddatabase.
Explored the Aura Console interface and learned to navigate its key features.
Built your own nodes, relationships, and properties using the Cypher query language.
Queried and visualized your data to uncover structure and meaning.

You now understand not just how Neo4j works, but why graph-based modeling is such a powerful way to represent relationships in humanities data. Your understanding may still be at a basic level but you have the foundations. And you haven't just explored this on a theoretical level but have moved into actual application.

In other words: you've gone from describing networks to building them.

Where to Go from Here

You can take your graph skills in several directions depending on your interests and goals.

Path	Description	Suggested Next Resource(s)
Keep Practicing in Aura	Add new nodes and relationships to your graph. Think about how your favorite musical artist(s) and their work could be modeled. Practice with your favorite novelist, video game franchise, collection, or hobby.	Revisit Modules 3–5 in this course, expanding your database and getting really familiar with the Aura Console and using the basic Cypher queries and commands covered here.
GraphAcademy Courses	Free, interactive online lessons developed by Neo4j's education team. Courses for all skills levels.	Neo4j GraphAcademy: Start with "Aura Fundamentals" and move on to "Neo4j Fundamentals," "Cypher Fundamentals," and "Graph Data Modeling Fundamentals." A lot of this will be review after completing our courses but you'll fill in some gaps and build confidence.
Learn Neo4j Bloom	A data visualization tool that lets you explore graphs and create beautiful visualizations without coding. Bloom powers Aura's "Explore" Tool.	Neo4j Bloom product page; Neo4j Bloom documentation
Dive Deeper into Cypher	Learn more about the Cypher query language, pattern matching, path traversal, indexes, constaints, and more. Mastery of this language unlocks the full potential of graph data models.	Cypher Query Language website; Neo4j Cypher Manual; GraphAcademy Cypher courses
Learn with / contribute to Wellespring	Keep taking the courses available on our website, learn the details of how we model and query data related to Jesse Welles, and make your own contributions.	Keep checking our Learn page for new courses, subscribe to our newsletter for updates, and check out our Database Documentation.

Expanding Your Graph

Here are some simple ways to grow your existing graph:

Add new node labels.
For example, Event, Organization, Place, or Reaction
Add new relationship types.
For example, INSPIRED_BY, MENTIONS, QUOTES, PERFORMED_AT
Import small datasets.
Neo4j supports CSV imports, which is perfect for lyric lists, event logs, or spreadsheet data. (You'll learn how to do this in one of our upcoming courses)
Experiment with visualization.
Adjust node colors, size, and clustering to reveal structure.

Each new connection you add isn't just data: it's an interpretation of meaning.

In humanities graph modeling, relationships are arguments. You are making claims about how things connect, and that's what makes this work both analytical and creative.

The Wellespring Project Context

The Wellespring Project uses Neo4j to study the lyrical and cultural worlds surrounding Jesse Welles, linking people, songs, concepts, and events into a living knowledge graph.

By learning Neo4j, you now share the same foundation used in our research workflow. In future courses, you'll see how we extend these skills to:

Import structured lyric data
Analyze sentiment and themes
Connect external references (people, places, concepts)
Visualize interpretive relationships dynamically on the web

Your understanding of nodes, relationships (also called "edges"), and properties prepares you for all of that.

Key Takeaways

You've built a foundational understanding of how Neo4j works.
You can create, connect, and query graph data with growing confidence.
You know where to find trustworthy next-step learning.
You understand how graphs can model meaning, not just store data.
You're ready to build or explore your own humanities-focused graph.

Closing Thought

The more we connect our ideas, the more clearly we understand them.
— Neo4j maxim, adapted for the humanities

You've now completed Building Graphs in Neo4j, your gateway into the world of data-driven, relationship-centered humanities research.

Course 4. Building Graphs in Neo4j