Fall/Winter Timetable
POL2578H1F L0101
Topics in Methods
Computational Text Analysis
Themes
Recent advances in computational social science have considerably increased the reach of scholars interested in studying political language. Moreover, swathes of digitized text documents are now available to researchers, including parliamentary records, committee proceedings, bills, laws, international treaties, news reports, social media discussions, blogs, and so forth. This course introduces students to the state of the art in the field of computational text analysis. It covers the most widely used methods and goes through the key steps of computer-assisted analysis, from the extraction of online textual data to empirical analysis. The course also includes an introduction to machine learning.
Texts
TBA
Format and Requirements
The course takes place in a computer lab and combines advanced lectures with interactive learning activities. In-class exercises will be done primarily with the Python programming language. The course does not have formal requirements, but some familiarity with programming and/or linguistics may be useful.
November 14, 2023
Congratulations to Madalyn Hay, a recipient of a 2023-2024 Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship. Madalyn, one of our doctoral students, holds a BAH in Contemporary Studies and Classics from the...
August 24, 2023
Congratulations to alumna Meaghan Williams, a recipient of the 2022-23 Governor General’s Gold Medal for Academic Excellence, the highest academic honour available to graduate students in Canada. Awarded annually by the Office of the...
June 14, 2021
Great news from the Canadian Political Science Association, which held its annual awards ceremony (online) over the weekend of June 12 & 13: Professor Stefan Rencken’s book "Private Governance and Public...
April 22, 2021
Congratulations to two political science alumni now teaching at U of T who have both won Superior Teaching Awards! Igor Shoikhedbrod and Khalid Ahmed will be celebrated on May 5th at...
August 6, 2020
Q&A with 2020 Vanier Scholar Yojana Miraya Oscco Congratulations to PhD student Yojana Miraya Oscco who has won a prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (SSHRC). Launched in 2008, the program enables...
April 30, 2020
Congratulations to our graduate student Kevin Edmonds who has won New College's June Larkin Award for Pedagogical Development. A PhD candidate specializing in Caribbean political economy, histories of alternative/illicit development, foreign intervention and...