Do you have a drive to use social science, data science, data analytics, and evidence to improve public well-being within underrepresented communities? From June 18th to July 1st, 2022, Howard University and Mathematica will once again partner on the only Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS) at a Historically Black College and University.

SICSS-Howard/Mathematica invites both social scientists and data scientists (broadly conceived) who are graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and pre-tenure faculty to apply for this *free* two-week institute (and accompanying 2-day prep institute).

SICSS-Howard/Mathematica is groundbreaking for a number of reasons: 1) we were the first (2021) and continue to be the only Summer Institute held at a Historically Black College or University (HBCU), 2) we have the benefit of a deeply invested partner, Mathematica, and finally 3) we have a topical focus on anti-Black racism and inequity. Participants will benefit from opportunities and resources that are unique due to our host, Howard University, our connection to the nation’s capital at a unique moment in our nation’s history, and given the generous support and deep engagement of Mathematica.

Our interactive and instructional program will involve lectures, group problem sets, and participant-led research projects. There will also be outside speakers who conduct and use computational social science research in a variety of settings, such as academia, industry, and government. Topics covered include text as data, website scraping, digital field experiments, non-probability sampling, mass collaboration, and ethics. There will be ample opportunities for students to discuss their ideas and research with the organizers, other participants, and visiting speakers. Because we are committed to open and reproducible research, all materials created by faculty and students for the Summer Institute will be released open source.

SICSS-Howard/Mathematica is available at no cost to participants thanks to Howard University and Mathematica. SICSS-Howard/Mathematica is particularly committed to the participation of individuals from diverse backgrounds. As such, participants from underrepresented backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply. Academically, we are looking for participants with a broad range of expertise, backgrounds in the social sciences, and interests-especially those with demonstrable interest in topics related to enhancing, developing or working on future projects that will address or intersect with issues of anti-Black racism and inequity.

If you want to learn more about SICSS-Howard/Mathematica check out the 9-part series co-written by our founder Naniette Coleman in Sage Publishing’s MethodSpace blog “The Future of Computational Social Science is Black”  or listen to Mathematica’s On the Evidence podcast “Inside an Initiative to Diversify the Field of Computational Social Science.” We also invite you to print and hang up our promotional poster, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and join our email list!