Unfortunately the last few months have been fairly low output in terms of blog posts. This can be credited to resettling after returning from Samoa, getting back to work with the tech community in D.C, and of course getting a dissertation written. I have had the chance to get myself on a few panels this … Continue reading Upcoming events!
Research
Presenting Research at Georgetown
I'm excited to be invited to present some of my work November 5 at Georgetown University's Center for Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Studies - here's some info, I think it'll be a fun talk!
Big News: The GDELT Global Dashboard
GDELT just released their new Global Visualization dashboard, and it's pretty cool. It blinks and flashes, glows and pulses, and is really interesting to navigate. Naturally, as a social scientist who studies conflict, I have some thoughts. 1) This is really cool. The user interface is attractive, it's easy to navigate, and it's intuitive. I … Continue reading Big News: The GDELT Global Dashboard
Rigor Versus Reality: Balancing the field with the lab
I am finally able to respond (add) to a post by Chris Moore about the problem of mathematicization and formalization of political science, and social science more generally, as it relates to how the social sciences inform real policy issues. As I'm finishing a Fulbright fellowship in Samoa, where I worked specifically on research supporting policy … Continue reading Rigor Versus Reality: Balancing the field with the lab
MCIT/NUS ICTs in Emergency Survey: Replication data
I spent the last two months managing a research collaboration between Samoa's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and the National University of Samoa, collecting nation wide data on how people use information and information technology to respond to natural disasters. This data will feed into my dissertation, as well as be useful to … Continue reading MCIT/NUS ICTs in Emergency Survey: Replication data
Learnings from ISA
Another March, another ISA conference. 2014 has been good, especially since the networking and socializing was matched by excellent feedback on what I presented. The highlights: What I thought was a failed experiment in getting Twitter to love me actually teased out some interesting methodological challenges that other panelists on the Crowdsourcing Violence panel faced. … Continue reading Learnings from ISA
Kristof, Columbia, and the ‘Public Intellectual-Professor’: Part 2
Earlier this week I wrote the first half of this pair of posts, focusing on the problems in Nicholas Kristof's piece on why professors should be more engaged in the public debate. I came down pretty hard on it, not because I disagree with the general sentiment (my doctoral research and interests are very policy … Continue reading Kristof, Columbia, and the ‘Public Intellectual-Professor’: Part 2
Kristof, Columbia, and the ‘Public Intellectual-Professor’: Part 1
This will be a two-parter since there's a lot in it. It's been interesting reading the initial article about why professors need to be involved in public debate from Nicholas Kristof and seeing the rejoinders, particularly Michelle Goldbergs' article about Columbia University's decision to let two of their best professors of public health go. I'm … Continue reading Kristof, Columbia, and the ‘Public Intellectual-Professor’: Part 1
Headed to Toronto soon…
I'll be at the International Studies Association annual convention from March 26-30 presenting two papers (never again will I submit two abstracts for papers that have to be written from scratch...) on Crowdsourcing methodology and technology in peacekeeping operations. Should be a lot of fun - feel free to give me feedback on the papers … Continue reading Headed to Toronto soon…
Causes of Effects…and Effects of Causes
Andrew Gelman and Guido Imbens recently posted a paper entitled "Why Ask Why? Forward Causal Inference and Reverse Causal Questions." It completely made my day, primarily because it succinctly deals with the way people naturally arrive at research questions with the help of some statistical logic. While I liked the models and the logic, what I … Continue reading Causes of Effects…and Effects of Causes
Charles P. Martin-Shields 