Social Network Analysis

My Summer Exploring Data Science for Social Justice: Learnings, Tensions & Recommendations

September 5, 2023
by Genevieve Smith. This summer I joined the D-Lab hosted Data Science for Social Justice workshop at UC Berkeley diving into Python – including TF-IDF, sentiment analysis, word embeddings, and more – with a lens towards leveraging data science for social justice. My team explored a Reddit channel on abortion and used computational analysis to answer key questions related to abortion access from before versus after Roe vs. Wade was overturned. Computational social science is incredibly powerful, but I continue to grapple with tensions particularly as it relates to employing machine learning and large language in international research, and end with key recommendations for CSS practitioners.

Suraj Nair

Data Science Fellow
School of Information

I am a PhD Student at the School of Information. My research interests lie at the intersection of development economics and machine learning, with a focus on the use of large scale digital data and new computational tools to study pressing issues in global development.

Spencer Le

Data Peer Consultant, UTech
Computer Science
Data Science

I am a senior majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Data Science. I love crunching down big data and analyzing it in order to help solve real-life issues. In my free time, I like jamming out to music, drawing, studying history, and posting on my foodstagram. If you have any questions regarding Computer Science or Data Science, please stop by!

Eileen Cahill

D-Lab Alumni
School of Information

Eileen is currently a first year Information Management and Systems student committed to studying human-centered design for the utility and usability of healthcare systems. She spent the last few years working in genomic research program analysis and management at the National Human Genome Research Institute. Prior to that, Eileen attended Georgetown University where she studied biology and studio art. During this time, she performed research on water contaminants in an analytical chemistry lab as well as research on estrogen mimicking compound effects on Zebrafish in a brain...

Working with spatial networks using NetworkX

December 7, 2021

I have always been interested in working with spatial networks. My first introduction to spatial network modeling was in Prof. John Radke’s Geographic Information Systems class when I learned about building and analyzing spatial networks using the Network Analyst extension in ArcMap. This extension provides powerful tools to solve common network problems, such as finding the best route across a city, finding the closest...

Can Virtual Communities be Archived?

February 23, 2021

When future historians try to piece together social life in the twenty-first century, they won’t be combing through faded newspaper clippings or handwritten letters. They’ll be clicking through digital archives that have stored remnants of our real and virtual lives: email collections, tweets, Facebook messages, maybe even Google Calendar entries.

For the time being, preservation of these records is the burden of the user. If one chooses, they can download their Facebook archive or back-up their emails and photos, and maybe choose to share them with a scholar in the...

Adam Anderson, Ph.D.

Research Training Manager; Postdoc Lecturer
Digital Humanities

I’m an interdisciplinary data scientist, with a background in Middle Eastern languages (Hebrew, Arabic, and historical languages like Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian). I’ve worked in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Turkey with archaeological sites and museums. My technical skills include: translation and data storytelling, data forensics (3D imaging, mapping, modeling), computational linguistics (CTA, NLP, OCR), and network analysis (SNA). My roles on campus include: Research Training Manager of the Computational Social Science Training Program; Postdoc Lecturer...