Research
My current research interests involve:
- The analysis and visualization of large-scale, densely contextual empirical datasets to address long-running concerns in cultural and urban sociology.
- The use of sociological, anthropological and historical studies/theories in recontextualizing and understanding contemporary technological practices.
Teaching
I have a strong interest in liberating the social sciences from their dependence on commercial statistics software through training in open-source scripting, data analysis, and visualization methods. This extends—especially in today's increasingly skewed job market—to the teaching of programming skills to students or groups who would ordinarily not enroll in computer science courses, but who may face a form of "computational deskilling" in the near future. Somewhat conversely, I am also interested in communicating the insights and relevance of specifically social-scientific and humanist thinking (including the history and sociology of science, linguistic anthropology, and philosophy of technology) to more technically-minded students and specialists.
Courses
- (Spring 2012) Computing for
the Social Sciences and the Humanities (University of Chicago). This is a non-credit course aimed at teaching basic
programming skills in Python and R to graduate and undergraduate
students in the social sciences and humanities. [Link]
- (Spring 2012) Transformative Technologies: Computing (Illinois Institute of Technology). This is an undergraduate course on computing practices which merges material from the history, sociology, anthropology, and philosophy of technology. [Syllabus] [Department Link]
Teaching Assistantships (as graduate student)
- Global Society and Global Culture (with Karin Knorr Cetina).
- Consumption (with Karin Knorr Cetina).
- Content Analysis (with James Evans).
- Science, Culture and Society III (with James Evans).
Teaching Assistantships (as undergraduate)
- Topics in Algorithmic Animation (with Nancy Pollard).
- Operating Systems (with Tom Doeppner).
- Introduction to Software Engineering (with Steve Reiss).
- Introduction to Scientific Computing (with John Savage).
Presentations
- "Relational and Non-Relational Models in the Virtualization of Bureaucracy". The Lived Logics of Database Machinery: a workshop organised by Computational Culture, June 28th, 2012.
Publications
- ECoG gamma activity during a language task: differentiating expressive and receptive speech areas. Towle VL, Yoon HA, Castelle M, Edgar JC, Biassou NM, Frim DM, Spire JP, Kohrman MH. Brain. 2008 Aug; 131(Pt 8):2013-27.
- Frequency domain analysis of human subdural recordings. Towle VL, Hunter JD, Edgar JC, Chkhenkeli SA, Castelle MC, Frim DM, Kohrman M, Hecox KE. Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology. 2007 Apr; 24(2):205-13.
Service
- Manuscript Review, American Journal of Sociology
- (2009-2010) Manuscript Board, American Journal of Sociology
Groups
