Meet the Researcher with CDS Faculty Fellow Sarah Shugars
Meet CDS Faculty Fellow Sarah Shugars. Prior to joining CDS, Sarah earned their PhD from Northeastern University’s Network Science Institute program in Spring 2020. Their research centers on how people communicate their political views and engage with others in political discussion.
We caught up with Sarah to discuss their research, their experience at CDS, and a bit about their (awesome!) new role as an assistant professor at Rutgers University, School of Communication and Information. Sarah will be collaborating with colleagues within the Communication Department beginning this fall.
What initially brought you to CDS?
The Faculty Fellows program at CDS is easily the best placement I could have asked for as a newly minted PhD. It has been absolutely wonderful to join and learn from this interdisciplinary community while also having the freedom to pursue my own independent research. Additionally, I’ve really valued the opportunity to teach a light load of one course per year — this has helped set me up for success on the tenure track by giving me time and space to develop pedagogical skills and lecture materials I expect to use for years to come.
That’s wonderful to hear! Can you tell us a bit about what you’ve been working on at CDS and describe your overall experience here so far?
During my time at CDS, I’ve been engaged in a number of research projects at the intersection of computational methods and political communication. Specifically, my work has aimed to better understand how online political discourse is conceptualized and measured — a topic which has become particularly salient in the era of widespread misinformation. I have also been working to develop resources aimed at growing and diversifying the computational social science community and had the tremendous opportunity to mentor three incredible undergraduates through CDS’ CURP program.
You’ll be starting a new role soon as Assistant Professor at Rutgers University, School of Communication and Information. Congrats, that is so exciting. What are you most looking forward to working on in your new role (as it relates to data science)?
Thank you! Rutgers is one of the leading institutions in computational social science and computational communication, and I am absolutely thrilled to be joining this incredible community. This type of interdisciplinary work requires not only data science expertise but deep knowledge of communication theory — Rutgers has scholars who excel at both as well as many who, like myself, work at the intersection of these two things. I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to collaborate and learn from these colleagues, as well as to partner with Rutgers in continuing to grow the field of computational social science as an inclusive, supportive, and diverse community.
What role do you see your work/research potentially playing in the future of data science?
Data science provides a powerful toolkit for analyzing large scale data, yet algorithmic output is useless without theory-based domain knowledge — running an algorithm is easy, meaningfully interpreting the result is hard. Throughout my research, teaching, and service I aim to bring these elements together: conducting computational research built firmly upon communication theory, teaching not only quantitative methods but how to apply and interpret those methods, and working to ensure that people from a range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are welcomed and supported in doing this work.
Do you have any final thoughts or comments you’d like to share about yourself, your work, CDS or data science in general?
Globally, the past two years have been deeply challenging. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to spend this time as part of the CDS community. I’ve had so much freedom and flexibility to pursue my research and support the growth of the computational social science community. It’s always bittersweet to move on to the next phase in one’s life, but I am so thankful for my time at CDS and I very much look forward to continuing my work as part of the exceptional faculty at Rutgers.
By Ashley C. McDonald
