Data & Democracy
Our democracy is under assault by the deliberate manipulation of facts, the growth of conspiracy theories, mounting public distrust, and an increasing willingness to endorse autocratic beliefs and engage in political violence—often enabled and fueled by digital media and a rapidly-evolving data landscape.
Data & Democracy — a transformational collaboration between the DSI and the Center for Effective Government — conducts cross-disciplinary research, convenes key stakeholders, and circulates and amplifies the findings needed to protect democracy in the digital age.
The Data & Democracy research initiative is a unique collaboration between computer scientists, statisticians and political scientists to better understand democracy in the digital age. This initiative will investigate critical questions concerning the impact of misinformation on effective government, how online communication translates into offline political behavior, and the implications of the consolidation of online media platforms for free speech. We invite researchers to join this initiative to spearhead new interdisciplinary research projects as part of a growing community of scholars.
Leadership
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Nick Feamster
Faculty Director of Tech Policy, Data Science Institute; Neubauer Professor of Computer Science and the College -
William Howell
Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, Professor in the Department of Political Science and the College, and Director of the Center for Effective Government
Nick Feamster is a Neubauer Professor in the Department of Computer Science and the College and the Faculty Director of Tech Policy for the Data Science Institute. He researches computer networking and networked systems, with a particular interest in Internet censorship, privacy, and the Internet of Things. His work on experimental networked systems and security aims to make networks easier to manage, more secure, and more available.
William Howell is the Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, a professor in the Department of Political Science and the College, and the director of the Center for Effective Government. He has written widely on separation-of-powers issues and American political institutions, especially the presidency. He currently is working on research projects on Obama’s education initiatives, distributive politics, and the normative foundations of executive power.