Fall/Winter Timetable

POL304H1F L5101

Topics in Methods

Using Data to Understand Politics and Society

Themes

Students will learn about role of data for understanding politics and society, and a wide
range of approaches to analyzing such data. How do information and data shape politics
and policies? What insights can we gain about contemporary and past societies from the data they produce? To answer these questions we will examine a series of methodological approaches to different types of political data, including text analysis, network analysis, spatial statistics, and time-series analysis. This course will draw from topics in the study of international relations, economics, political behavior, and statistics to over a diverse set of tools for processing and analyzing different types of data. Applications will include war and conflict, terrorism, international trade, social media, elections, and representation.

Texts

TBA

Format and Requirements

Combination of lectures, labs, and seminars/workshops.

Prerequisites

POL232H1 or equivalent

Exclusions