Core Faculty

Laura K. Nelson is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia and is the inaugural director of the Centre for Computational Social Science. Previously, she was an assistant professor at Northeastern University, where she was core faculty at the NULab for Text, Maps, and Networks, a faculty affiliate at the Network Science Institute, and was a member of the executive committee of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. Laura uses computational methods to study social movements, culture, gender, institutions, and the history of feminism. She’s particularly interested in developing transparent and reproducible text analysis methods for sociology using open-source tools. Laura has published in venues such as the American Journal of Sociology, Sociological Methods & Research, Gender & Society, and Poetics, among other outlets. She is a consulting editor and ad hoc deputy editor at the American Journal of Sociology, an editorial board member of Poetics and Acta Sociologica, and an associate editor of EPJ Data Science. She was previously on the editorial boards of Sociological Methodology and Signs.

https://sociology.ubc.ca/profile/laura-nelson/

https://sociology.ubc.ca/profile/david-tindall/

Research Interests: population and development; migration dynamics; immigrant assimilation; ethnic and racial identity; research and survey methodology

Guy Stecklov is a professor in the Department of Sociology. His research explores the relationship between inequality and an array of social and demographic outcomes. The outcomes he studies include reproduction, migration and increasingly ethnic and racial identity. He has long standing interests in methodology, including social survey data collection, to better understand how our research approaches affect our understanding of social behavior. While his investigations have been set in a wide range of social contexts, his core focus is on sub-Saharan Africa.

https://sociology.ubc.ca/profile/guy-stecklov/

Research Interests: global & international history; law & society; politics & the state; public history; science; technology; medicine; news and media; international relations; public policy; platform governance; transatlantic relations

Heidi Tworek is an associate professor of international history and public policy in the Department of History. She is a Research Chair and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions. Her work examines the history and policy around communications, particularly the effects of new media technologies on democracy. She co-edits the Journal of Global History. Heidi is working on several projects, including global platform governance, health communications history and policy, and an edited volume on the interwar world. Her research has been supported by the Canada Research Chair program, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Genome Canada, the United Nations Foundation, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and Harvard University.

https://history.ubc.ca/profile/heidi-tworek/

https://economics.ubc.ca/profile/jesse-perla/

Research Interests: applied economics; industrial organization; experiential learning; community-engaged learning

Jonathan Graves is an assistant professor of teaching and the majors program advisor at the Vancouver School of Economics. Jonathan teaches intermediate and senior undergraduate courses, focusing on using economic intuition, modeling, and data analysis to understand the world around us. His pedagogical research includes developing undergraduate researchers, experiential learning, community-engaged learning, and the Indigenous curriculum. His economics research primarily bridges industrial organization and applied microeconomics, with a focus on firm and individual decision-making.

https://economics.ubc.ca/profile/jonathan-graves/

Research Interests: Greek (Language); Greek Studies; Archaeology and Material Culture; Culture and Identity; Religions

Megan Daniels, Assistant Professor of Ancient Greek Material Culture at UBC, explores various facets of the ancient Mediterranean world. Her current monograph project, "The Queen of Heaven and a Goddess for All the People: Religion and Rulership in Archaic Greece," investigates the transition from one-man rule to more egalitarian governments among Greek communities during the period of ca. 550 to 350 BCE through myth and ritual. Supported by prestigious grants and foundations, including the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Megan's scholarly contributions include publications on Phoenician/Punic culture, where she delves into the archaeology and history of these ancient civilizations. Additionally, she has co-edited volumes integrating social sciences and data sciences approaches to understanding ancient religion. Her research significantly contributes to the understanding of the ancient world.

https://amne.ubc.ca/profile/megan-daniels/

Research Interests: Learning Analytics; AI in Education; Human-Centred Design

Fatemeh Salehian Kia, Assistant Professor of Information Science at UBC, is a leading figure in the field of technology-enhanced learning. Her research delves into the complex interactions between learners and educational technology, with a particular focus on understanding how to quantify learning contexts and identify key factors for successful learning outcomes. Drawing on her background in computer science, design, and cognition, Fatemeh integrates methodologies from data science, learning science, and human-computer interaction to advance our understanding of these processes. In addition to her academic role, Fatemeh has spearheaded several innovative projects, including OnTask and My Learning Analytics (MyLA), which aim to provide personalized feedback and support self-regulated learning. Through her work, Fatemeh aims to harness the power of technology to drive transformative changes in education, ensuring that it enhances the learning process for all students.

https://ischool.ubc.ca/profile/fatemeh-kia/