Seminar on "Big Data in the Social Sciences"

With the explosive growth in computing power of personal computers and the unprecedented proliferation of information sources on social media as well as the World Wide Web, “Big Data” has become a vogue in academia, business and government. “Big Data” is revolutionizing the social science research in crucial ways such as data collection, sharing, management and analysis. What are the advantages and challenges of “Big Data” approach in studying social phenomena? How do social science practitioners and researchers employ “Big Data” to advance our knowledge? This talk will offer a short but comprehensive overview of major machine learning techniques and their applications in social science research.

Dr. Dong ZHANG received his doctorate in political science from Northwestern University. He was a Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow in contemporary Asia at the Walter H. Shorenstein AsiaPacific Research Center of Stanford University (2016-2017). He worked as a consultant of the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He holds bachelor's degrees in public policy and economics, and a master's degree in public policy from Peking University, Beijing. His research interests include political economy of development, authoritarian politics, corruption and governance.