Zachary Steinert-Threlkeld (Public Policy, Political Science) and Eric Min (Political Science).

The Big Data and Political working group brings together leading academics from across the country to present research that uses computational techniques.  It also encourages community development, both through providing graduate students the opportunity to meet individually with speakers and by co-sponsoring events.

The first guest speakers were on March 19^th, 2021; the second, April 30^th; and the final, keynote address occurred on May 14^th.  The working group co-sponsored the Data-Informed Governance conference that took place on July 7, 2021.

Participants came among others from Political Science, Sociology, and Communications.

Safiya Noble (Gender Studies and African American Studies), Stacy Wood (UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry), Sarah Roberts (Information Studies).

The UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, in partnership with UCLA Division of Social Sciences is hosting a working group on Social Justice as part of the larger campus-wide Big Data Initiative and the DataX Initiative. This working group is meant to foster intellectual community across disciplines and domains and help foreground the crucial impact, uses, risks and potentials around ‘big data’ as it relates to broader social justice movements and efforts.

Quarterly convenings for the working group, writing groups, and networking events will be announced at c2i2.ucla.edu in AY21-22. In the first working group meeting in the Spring of 2021, we came together to discuss plans for the upcoming year as well as ways we as faculty can support each other and create a robust network for sustaining this work into the future.

The Working Group includes faculty from Information Studies, African American Studies, Gender Studies, UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics, Urban Planning, History, Chicana/o & Central American Studies, Anthropology, the UCLA Law School and others.