Full Professor, Dept. of Social and Political Sciences, UniMi (IT)
Email: luigi.curini@unimi.it
Webpages:
Unimi
Researchgate
Google Scholar
Likedin
Personal website
Twitter: @Curini
Walk us through your resume: how did you get into the topic of your course?
I have been always fascinated by the possibilities that new methods applied to old an new data (including digital data) open in terms of a better understanding of social and political patterns previously largely neglected. Including the possibility not only to look at our present (or our future), but also to go back in history, and learning a bit more from our past.
What will students learn by attending your classes?
Students will learn how to employ some of the most often discussed methods advanced in the literature in the last years to analyze digital texts (from political speeches to social media data) and to extract from them useful information for texting their own hypotheses. In doing that, we will learn some fascinating topics such as: machine learning and artificial intelligence, network analysis, structural topic models.
How would your students describe you?
That I probably gesticulate too much (at least that’s what my Japanese students always remind me!). And, for sure, that I talk too much about football (I am a big Inter fan)…But I hope they also appreciate my attempts to create an environment where students also must talk and discuss, not only listen.
Please, tell us something about yourself that’s not on your resume.
You better watch out everytime you come to my office if you do not know the difference between the Great Mazinger and Mazinger Z!