Preceptors are mentors selected from the very finest doctoral students in the Division.  Their overriding concern is to communicate, week by week, the informal norms that govern academic research. Your preceptor will assist with your course selections, with your choice of faculty advisor for the MA paper, and with the development of the MA thesis, from the initial proposal through the submission of your final draft. You are strongly advised to make as much use of them as possible. You will also have ongoing mentorship and advice from our senior academic staff.

Joshua Mausolf

Senior Preceptor in Computational Social Science

McGiffert Hall, Room 204
(773) 834-4905

Joshua is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago. He holds a BA, summa cum laude, from New York University, received his MA at the University of Chicago, and was a summer fellow at Data Science for Social Good. Joshua’s general interests intersect at the boundaries of sociology, political science, and economics, which he explores using computational and statistical methods. He is broadly interested in social stratification and inequality, labor markets, corporate boards and organizations, campaign finance, political ideology and polarization, political and media discourse, and social movements. For more information, please visit his homepage.

Shilin Jia

Preceptor in Computational Social Science

5730 S. Woodlawn, Room 403
(773) 702-6591

Shilin’s research interest lies in applying computational methods to studies of politics and organizations.  He is experienced with network analysis, content analysis, and statistical modeling. His research includes studies of mobility patterns of communist party elites in China and changing rhetoric in the People’s Daily. For more information, please visit his homepage.

Shilin Jia

Sanja Miklin

Preceptor in Computational Social Science

McGiffert Hall, Room 204
(773) 834-6207

Sanja is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. She holds a BA, summa cum laude, from Dartmouth College, has received her MA at the University of Chicago, and was a Graduate Fellow at the Stevanovich Institute on the Formation of Knowledge. Sanja has received interdisciplinary training spanning anthropology, sociology and psychology, including both quantitative and qualitative methods. She is broadly interested in the production of knowledge about social problems, and currently focuses on suicide-related research and activism. She explores these through a mixed-methods approach that includes ethnography and interviews, archival research, as well as computational analysis of texts and science article publication data. For more information, please visit her homepage.

Miklin