Daniel Karell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Yale University. His current research focuses on how social media contribute to social and political dysfunction. He conducts some of this research as part of an international team based at the Peace Research Institute Oslo examining how online speech influences inter-communal violence in India. More generally, Daniel’s work explores the links between politics, culture, violence, and digital media, as well as how to better measure and understand culture using computational techniques. In recent years, Daniel has been a Fung Global Fellow at Princeton University and a Weatherhead Scholar at Harvard University.

What do you do with data science?

With regards to teaching, I teach a YData connector course called “YData: Measuring Culture”. It covers ways to analyze and understand culture using computational methods and digital data. With regards to research, I use computational techniques and social media and administrative data to measure and analyze aspects of culture, then use these results in broader sociological research. This work has appeared in journals like American Sociological Review, Sociological Methodology, and Poetics. (I am also currently a consulting editor at American Journal of Sociology, focusing on computational research.) Moving forward, I would like to develop my use of image and video analysis and causal inference using machine learning. I would also like to begin research collaborations with faculty in other departments.