Above all, please know that I am looking to work with people who 1) share our lab values, 2) can deal with the logistical issues stated below, and are 3) interested in what we do. I am not overly concerned about 1) how smart you think you are (you’re very smart, trust me), 2) whether or not you have done research before (although you should definitely want to do research if you’re applying to do a PhD!), or 3) your grades in specific courses.
If you have specific questions about this page, please let me know (although please also note that I am sometimes a bit slow to respond during the semester)! If you plan to email about general interest in working with me, it is most helpful and productive if you do so after reading some papers that reflect what we do, and comment on that in your email!
Additionally, if you are a[n]…
Logistics are boring but I feel it is important to be up front about some things so that I don’t waste your time! To this end, there’s a few points that are outside of my hands that are important to consider:
Our group engages in a variety of work in the space of computational social science. Much of this variety is because students convince me that what they want to do fits with our lab values. If you can convince me of that, I’m going to do my best to support you!
Some examples of recent work by students that have worked with me include:
For many more examples, check out a list of publications from our group.
Below is a list that intermingles my values as an advisor and some values that our group shares. This list is constantly evolving, as new people bring new perspectives and we learn from each other. And, at times, these values conflict - for example, getting yourself to where you want to be may at some points conflict with you being a good teammate. But hopefully this gives you a sense at what you should expect in working together with me and the others I currently work with.
Engaging in meaningful work - For me, meaningful work means work that creates a pathway to addressing or better understanding social inequality. The work that we do together will therefore have to connect to this notion of meaningful in some way. That connection might initially be indirect - for example, you might want to develop a new method for classifying text - but you should ultimately have an idea of how to apply this to a meaningful problem. This means that I am not interested in working on things like movie recommendation, how to serve ads, etc.
Respect for lived experience as knowledge - We respect and inheret into our research process the stories and experiences that people bring to our group as members, friends, and colleagues. We do not assume that quantitative study of other people’s lives means we have any ability to understand their lives, and we work to bring individuals in the communities we study in as equal partners in our work wherever possible.
Respect for our non-work life and our mental and physical health - There are at least two ways in which our group engages with this value. First, we are adament about not over-working ourselves. That means no expectations of work during non-working hours, accepting that what “working hours” means might be different for each of us (e.g. some of you may still be able to sleep past 6:30AM :) ). Second, this means that we don’t ask unwanted or unwelcome questions about others personal lives. If folks say they need time off for personal reasons, no follow ups are needed or desired.
Trust and Open Communication - I place a significant amount of trust in the people I work with. This means a lot of things, but one important thing to note is that it means that if you tell me you are going to do something, I don’t ask a ton of questions, and assume it will get done when you have time to do it. This trust only works in combination with open communication- I expect that if you have any issues getting things done, you will let me know, and we will resolve them together. Each advisor/student relationship finds a different path to how this communication happens (on slack, more regular meetings, etc.). But it is important that you know that I cannot help you solve a problem if I do not know about it.
Getting students to where they want to be - This is a personal value. I believe my role as an advisor is primarily to get out of students way and let them be productive and creative. At the same time, I aim to use my experience to make sure that you stay on a path to get you to where you want to be, whether that is getting into a good grad school, becoming a professor, or going to industy. I try very hard to balance getting out of your way and being in your way just enough to make sure you don’t fall off the path you want to be on.
Teamwork / #TeamScience - Part (much?) of the game in academia is, unfortunately, about making a name for yourself. As an advisor, my version of teamwork is helping you to play this game, while still maintaining the other goals on this list. But I do not have an interest in working with individuals who aim to “make a name for themselves” at the expense of their peers (at UB or elsewhere). Ultimately, the goal of science as a whole is to build knowledge collectively, and we should celebrate our peers and friends when they help us to do that.