Computational Social Science

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