Interdisciplinary Social Science Program
Specialization in Computational Social Science
Faculty Lead: Dr. Maria Cristina (MC) Ramos
Description
As an alternative to choosing the general ISS option or a general option discipline, students can select the Computational Social Specialization as a primary or secondary area of study, or as a combination of primary and secondary areas of study within ISS.
The Computational Social Science Specialization seeks to bridge the gap between the study of social problems and availability of data and computational techniques. Computational social science students will acquire essential data discovery, wrangling, exploration, and visualization skills. Additionally, students will learn to collect and examine social phenomena using novel computational tools, such as web scraping, APIs, network analysis, natural language processing, and agent-based models.
Who Should Consider Pursuing Computational Social Science as a Specialization?
This course of study is designed for undergraduate students in the social sciences who are eager to enhance their data analysis and visualization skills. Ideal candidates should have a strong interest in social sciences, data analysis, and a desire to learn new tools and methods. Analytical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, attention to detail, and a collaborative mindset will support your success, and this course of study is designed to help develop and refine these abilities.
Students who specialize in computational social science may pursue careers in data analysis, social research, public policy, market research, non-profit organizations, and academia, with roles such as data analyst, research associate, social media analyst, policy analyst, and program evaluator.
No programming experience is required. The specialization is designed to meet you where you are, whether you’re new to programming or eager to expand your skills and explore new methodologies.
Specialization Structure
Option A: Primary Area of Study for ISS (18 credits – 6 courses)
Computational Social Science as a primary area of study requires 18 credits from a specified list of classes. Students must take:
- All 3 courses from the required course list
- 1 course from the list of ethical and social implications electives
- 2 courses from the list of skills electives
Each course may only count once.
Option B: Secondary Area of Study for ISS (12 credits – 4 courses)
Computational Social Science as a secondary area of study require 12 credits from a specified list of classes. Students must take:
- All 3 courses from the required course list
- 1 course from the list of ethical and social implications electives
Each course may only count once.
Option C: Combination of Primary and Secondary Areas of Study for ISS (30 credits – 10 courses)
Computational Social Science as a combined primary and secondary area of study requires 30 credits from a specified list of classes. Students must take:
- All 3 courses from the required course list
- 1 course from the list of ethical and social implications electives
- 2 courses from the list of skills electives
- 4 courses from the list of topic electives (students must take courses from the same topic area)
Each course may only count once.
REQUIRED COURSES
Required Courses (must be taken for Option A, B, or C)
There are three required courses: ISS 3363 Data and Society, ISS 3300 Computational Tools for Social Science Research, and ISS 3330 Interdisciplinary Social Science Research*. Here is a description of what you will learn in each course.
ISS 3363 Data and Society
This course equips you with essential skills for exploring and visualizing social science datasets using R. It serves as a general-purpose course designed to cover the fundamental tasks necessary for effective data analysis. While not mandatory, it is recommended that you take this course before enrolling in ISS 3300.
Throughout the course, you will learn how to:
- Locate relevant social science data sources
- Read and clean datasets to ensure accuracy and usability
- Explore data to extract meaningful insights
- Effectively visualize these insights to communicate your findings
By the end of the course, you will be well-prepared to tackle more advanced data analysis techniques.
ISS 3300 Computational Tools for Social Science Research
This course equips you with specialized techniques of the digital era. We will focus on four critical techniques:
- Digital Data Collection: We will cover various techniques for gathering data from the web, including online surveys, web scraping, and interacting with applications and platforms such as YouTube and Reddit. These methods enable researchers to collect datasets that reflect people’s behavior and interactions within digital spaces.
- Social Network Analysis: This set of tools enables the study of relationships among individuals (e.g., friendship, advice, resource exchanges), organizations (e.g., collaborations, resource sharing), countries (e.g., trade agreements, conflicts), and other entities. Questions you can explore using social network analysis include: Who are the key, well-connected actors in a community? What factors increase the likelihood of friendships or conflict? What patterns exist within a group’s relationships—are there hierarchies, a cohesive community, fragmented subgroups, or other structures? Social network analysis tools will help you understand social interactions, flows of information or resources, community structures, among many other topics that focus on connections.
- Text as Data: These tools allow analyzing text in its many forms. Think social media posts, emails, speeches, books, application essays, customer reviews, etc. You can assess whether a piece of text conveys anger, happiness, joy, etc. or is generally positive or negative. Additionally, you can identify prevalent topics within a set of documents, analyze political stances, identify the intent of the text, and uncover other trends or themes that emerge from the data. Text as data tools will help you analyze language use and public discourse.
- Agent-Based Models: These tools will allow you to do social simulations by modeling the behaviors and interactions of individual agents within a defined environment. Agent-based models help examine how individual actions can lead to complex group dynamics and emergent phenomena. For instance, the actions of individual actors can collectively lead to patterns of segregation, mass protests, and the depletion of natural resources. You can use agent-based models to better understand social processes, decision-making, and the impact of policy changes on individuals and entire systems.
ISS 3330 Interdisciplinary Social Science Research*
In this course, you will establish common ground across disciplinary research methods exploring how social scientists formulate research questions, describe problems, gather data, and come to conclusions with an eye towards building an interdisciplinary understanding of the many complexities that feed into our social phenomena of interest. Rather than simply present facts about social phenomena, students will learn to ask rigorous questions and think about the social world in a more critical manner. This class will provide students with the tools to become better consumers of social information. Specifically asking research questions, evaluating information surrounding social problems and phenomena across disciplines, and formulating integrative research designs that answer social questions or inform theory and apply basic qualitative and quantitative analyses to answer those questions.
*other science research methods courses may be used to meet this requirement. Contact Dr. Ramos to discuss options.
ELECTIVES
Ethical and Social Implications Electives
- SYO 4461 New Media and Social Change
- ISS 4139 Perspectives on Race, Ethnicity, and Inequality
Skills Electives
- ECO 3431 Analysis of Economic Data (has some pre-requisites)
- GEO 4162C Spatial Data Analysis
- GIS 2040 Essentials of GIS
- GIS 4043 Geographic Information Systems*
- GIS 4045 Introduction to Remote Sensing*
- GIS 4330 Florida GIS Applications
- PAD 4072 Applications of Unmanned Aircraft Systems
- PAD 4841 Intelligence Analysis and Communication
- POS 3713 Understanding Political Science Research
- SYA 4400 Social Statistics
- SYA 4300 Methods of Social Research
* Has a 1-credit computational lab co-requirement
Topic Electives
Crime:
- AMH 3320 Mass Incarceration
- AMH 3470 The Evolution of Organized Crime
- CCJ 4507 Networks and Crime: Peers, Groups, and Gangs
- ECP 3451 Economics and the Law
- POS 3691 Law and Society
- POS 4284 Courts, Law, and Politics
- POS 4624 The Supreme Court, Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
- SYP 4550 Alcohol and Drug Problems
- SYP 4570 Deviance and Social Control
- SYP 3540 Sociology of Law
- CCJ 3644 White Collar Crime
- CCJ 3068 The Social Reality of Black Males
- CCJ 4004 Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice
- CCJ 4036 Communities and Crime
- CCJ 4497 Criminal Justice and Public Policy
- CCJ 4344 Punishment and Punitiveness
- CCJ 4623 Violence in America
- CCJ 4505 Juvenile Delinquency
- CCJ 4663 Women, Crime and Justice
- CCJ 4667 Crime Victimization and Victim Services
- CCJ 4684 Family Violence
- CCJ 4687 Evaluation and Assessment of Victim Services
Environment:
- ECP 3302 Economics of Natural Resources, Energy, and The Environment
- GEO 4251 Geography of Climate Change and Storms
- GEO 4357 Environmental Conflict and Economic Development
- GEO 4280 Geography of Water Resources
- GEO 4355 Geography of Food and Environment
- SYD 4510 Environmental Sociology
- PAD 4301 Disaster Management Planning for Urban Poor Communities
- PAD 4015 Cites at Risk
- PUP 4203 Environmental Politics and Policy
- URP 4402 Sustainable Development Planning in the Americas
- URP 4710 Introduction to Transportation Issues and Transportation Planning
- URP 5445 Climate Change and Community Resilience
Gender & Families:
- AMH 4684 Women and Children in the Civil Rights Movement
- ANT 3300 Masculinity in Global Perspective
- GEO 4412 Environment and Gender
- HIS 3205 LGBTQ History
- PAD 4433 Women, Disasters, and Conflict
- PUP 3323 Women and Politics
- SYD 3800 Sociology of Sex and Gender
- SYO 4180 Gender and Work
- SYO 3100 Families and Social Change
- SYO 4374 Gender, Work, and Family
Health:
- ANT 4462 Introduction to Medical Anthropology
- ECO 4530 Economics of Health
- GEO 4450 Medical Geography
- GIS 4421 GIS and Health
- HIS 2496 Pandemics and People
- HIS 3491 Medicine & Society
- PAD 4844 Public Health and Emergency
- PHC 4157 Health Policy and Society
- PUP 4604 Health Services Organizations and Policy
- SYA 4930 Neighborhood Stress & Health
- SYA 3741 Sociology of Death and Dying
- SYO 4402 Medical Sociology
- URP 3527 Green Global Health
Poverty and Inequality:
- CPO 3034 Politics of Developing Areas
- ECO 4132 Economics of Compassion
- ISS 4164 Intersections, Power, and Policy
- PAD 4301 Disaster Management Planning for Urban Poor Communities
- SOP 4722 Prejudice and Stereotyping
- SYO 3530 Social Class and Inequality
- SYD 4700 Race and Minority Group Relations
- URP 4811 Multicultural Urbanism
- URP 5540 State and Local Economic Development
- WOH 3440 History of Refugees
Social Movements:
- AFA 4007 Black Political Thought & Social Movement
- POS 4235 Media and Politics
- PUP 4024 Interest Groups, Social Movements, and Public Policy
- SYP 3350 Collective Action and Social Movements
- SYP 3454 The Global Justice Movement
- SYP 3000 Social Psychology of Groups
Government & Politics
- ECO 4532 Economic Analysis of Politics
- ECO 4554 Economics of State and Local Government
- ECO 4504 Public Sector Economics
- ECP 3451 Economics and the Law
- ECP 3617 Land Use, Housing, and Government Regulation
- ECP 4413 Government Regulation of Business
- PAD 3003 Public Administration in Society
- PAD 4120 Managing Florida’s Government and Its Key Policy Issues
- POS 3122 State Politics
- POS 3142 Urban Politics
- POS 3263 Political Elites and Campaigning
- POS 4235 Media and Politics
- SYO 4300 Sociology of Politics
- URP 4022 Collective Decision Making