Networks are ubiquitous; they can be found at every turn, from alliance formation to opinions, from rivers to species migration, from proteins to computers and the internet, from trade to disease spreading, from friendship to co-working and innovation. How entities (people, countries, proteins, species, landscapes, etc.) are linked to each other often affects how processes unfold (i.e. the resilience of food-webs, the spread of information on the internet, the ability to reduce or facilitate contagions and trade, or how opinions and ideas are shared). In other words, structure influences process, and thus the underlying network structure (how things are linked to each other) affects overall system behavior. Network structure thus helps us understand individual components and their collective behavior.
Understanding issues related to global environmental politics employing different frameworks focused on social-ecological systems.
These courses are not offered currently at UCF by myself. They were taught at Utah State University between 2015 and 2018.
The world is becoming increasingly complex and interlinked due to globalization and the advancements of technologies. In the last two decades, network science has gained traction and has been used to describe a wide variety of different phenomena in life and social sciences. In fact, it is well documented that structural properties of networks influence behaviors and outcomes in a wide range of systems - from social networks to food webs, from landscapes to power grids, from the internet to political and policy networks, not to mention epidemics and vaccines interactions, strategies and ideas, coalitions and teams.
This course is designed to introduce students to advanced topics in the use of statistical methods as well as other methods and tools used to analyze issues in political science research. More specifically, in this course students will learn how to use appropriate statistical software (STATA) in order to perform quantitative data analysis (linear and logistic regression, time-series data analysis, panel data analysis). The course will also introduce students to other potentially useful software to perform data analysis and they will be introduced to methods beyond statistical analysis that are used in political science research such as content analysis, qualitative comparative analysis, agent based modelling and networks.
Today the world is changing at an unprecedented rate. Changes are coming fast, due to environmental, technological and socio-economic changes. Sustainability, concerned with issues relating to the ability of present society to enjoy resources and levels of wealth, while not jeopardizing the ability of future generations to do so, is becoming more prominent. The objective of this course is giving students the ability to critically think around issues related to sustainability, increase knowledge on issues related to socio-economic, political, demographic processes as well as environmental ones concerning the sustainable use of resources, and be able to present concisely and clearly problems and potential solutions to current and possible future concerns related to “sustainability”.
Today the world is changing at an unprecedented rate. Changes are coming fast, due to environmental, technological and socio-economic changes. Sustainability, concerned with issues relating to the ability of present society to enjoy resources and levels of wealth, while not jeopardizing the ability of future generations to do so, is becoming more prominent. The objective of this course is giving students the ability to critically think around issues related to sustainability, increase knowledge on issues related to socio-economic, political, demographic processes as well as environmental ones concerning the sustainable use of resources, and be able to present concisely and clearly problems and potential solutions to current and possible future concerns related to “sustainability”.