Social science increasingly uses data that requires advanced tools and algorithms. Preparing text, audio, and video data for analysis and running those analyses involves linking contemporary computational tools with datasets and major research challenges in ways that cut across disciplines. Building bridges between data scientists who develop the tools to analyze these data and social scientists who have datasets to address research questions in unprecedented ways that could benefit from them is critical for both opening the world of these new data and refining the tools for analysis.
The Social Research with Unstructured Data working group facilitates collaborations between NLP methodology experts and domain researchers who pose significant research questions that could benefit from NLP. One of the primary working group activities is organizing a regular connection series, with presentations on works in progress, funding opportunities, and new data sources. This ongoing series, jointly sponsored by MIDAS, the AI Lab and ISR, began in Fall 2022.
The working group also organized an NLP workshop series in Fall 2022. Past workshop series information is available here.
