The University of Chicago Summer
Computing for the Social Sciences

Computing for the Social Sciences


Course Code

MACS 30500 10

Cross Listed Course Code(s)

CHDV 30511, ENST 20550, MACS 20500, MAPS 30500, PLSC 30235, PSYC 30510, SOCI 20278, SOCI 40176, SOSC 26032

Course Description

This is an applied course for social scientists with little-to-no programming experience who wish to harness growing digital and computational resources. The course focuses on analyzing data and generating reproducible research through the use of the programming language R and version control software. Topics include coding concepts (e.g., data structures, control structures, functions, etc.), data visualization, data wrangling and cleaning, exploratory data analysis, etc. Major emphasis is placed on a pragmatic understanding of core principles of programming and packaged implementations of methods. You will leave the course with basic computational and R skills. While not becoming expert programmer, you will gain the knowledge of how to adapt and expand these skills as they are presented with new questions, methods, and data.

Course Criteria

This course is cross-listed with CHDV 30511, ENST 20550, MACS 30500, MAPS 30500, PLSC 30235, PSYC 30510, SOCI 20278, SOCI 40176. It is open to all undergraduates and is included in the Summer Institute in Social Research Methods. Computing for the Social Sciences is an approved elective in the Environmental Studies major and minor. It is an approved methods course for the Public Policy Studies major. It also is an approved elective for the Latin American and Caribbean Studies major and the Sociology major. This course may be approved as an elective for additional majors by petition.

Instructor(s)

Sabrina Nardin

Session

Session 1

Course Dates

June 15th - July 17th

Class Days

Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu

Class Time

9:30 am - 11:30 am

Modality

Remote

Other Courses to Consider

These courses might also be of interest.

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    This course explores critical foundations of social science research design. It will place an emphasis on how social scientists identify and create data to empirically examine social phenomena through a variety of different theoretical and methodological approaches. It will cover the relationship between research questions, design, and generating data across different methodological and epistemological approaches in the social sciences.

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    Introduction to GIS and Spatial Analysis

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