October 16, 2020

In collaboration with the Office of Research & Innovation, the Social Science Research Committee (SSRC) will host a research seminar by Dr. Kathleen M. Carley from Carnegie Mellon University:

Tuesday, October 27, 2020 (via Zoom)
2:00 to 3:30pm

The seminar is entitled “Disinfodemic: The Pandemic and Disinformation” which focuses on disinformation during COVID-19. What kind of disinformation was spread, who was/is spreading it, how was it being spread, and what impact are we seeing. Particular issues addressed include conspiracies, and the Reopen America campaigns and the Anti-Covid-vaccination campaigns.

Dr. Carley’s talk is part of SSRC’s computational social science initiative aiming at promoting the integration of social, biological, physical, and engineering sciences within Drexel research community. An earlier event of this initiative was a three-week training on social network analysis using R (August 2020).

Dr. Carley is a Professor of Computer Science in the Institute for Software Research, IEEE Fellow, and Director of the Center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research combines cognitive science, sociology, and computer science to address complex social and organizational issues. Her most notable research contribution was the establishment of Dynamic Network Analysis (DNA) – and the associated theory and methodology for examining large high-dimensional time variant networks. Her research on DNA has resulted in tools for analyzing large‐scale dynamic networks and various multi‐agent simulation systems. She has led the development of tools for extracting sentiment, social and semantic networks from social media and other textual data (AutoMap & NetMapper), simulating epidemiological models (BioWar), and simulating changes in beliefs and practice given information campaigns (Construct).

Dr. Carley received BS degrees in Economics and in Political Science from M.I.T., and a PhD degree in Sociology from Harvard University. She is an IEEE Fellow, and has received the USGA Academic Award at GEOINT 2018 for her work on geo‐spatially enabled dynamic network analytics. She is the recipient of the Allen Newell award for research excellence. She has served as President of the North American Association for Computational and Organizational Simulation (2003-2004) and of the Mathematical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association (1999-2000). She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sociology and Computers Section of the ASA (2001). In 2011 she received the Simmel Award for advances in the area of social networks from the International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA).

Please register no later than Monday, October 26, 2020. Zoom information will be sent to the registrants prior to the seminar. 

The Social Science Research Committee (SSRC) aims at building a vibrant social science research community at Drexel University. We are open to faculty members who are interested in human social behavior from all academic fields. In the past year, we have organized method training, civic engagement research forum, visit to DC to meet federal grant officers, etc. We are planning activities to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration between social and natural/engineering sciences, longer-term collaboration between faculty and interested undergraduate students, etc.

If you are interested in joining the SSRC, please submit a request to Giang Nguyen gnn23@drexel.edu join the group. Faculty from all academic fields are welcome.