Announcements

QSS search for a new assistant professor

The Program in Quantitative Social Science (QSS) at Dartmouth College is searching for an assistant professor who uses modern research methods to address the topics of race and racism.  QSS is a vibrant and growing program at Dartmouth, and a new faculty member will facilitate QSS coursework in the area of race and contribute to the research enterprise of the program.

Details on the position and a link to apply are available at Interfolio.  Review of applications will commence on October 1, 2021.  A short description of the position is as follows.

The Program in Quantitative Social Science (QSS) at Dartmouth College seeks a scholar for a tenure-track appointment as Assistant Professor, to be appointed as early as July 1, 2022. QSS is an interdisciplinary program that integrates modern statistical, computational, and mathematical tools with social science. Qualified candidates should have a Ph.D. (or be ABD with degree in hand by the appointment date) in a social science field. Potential fields include: economics, demography, sociology, political science, geography, or related disciplines. We are particularly interested in applications from qualified quantitative scholars whose research and teaching centers on race and racism in the United States. Qualified candidates should demonstrate strong, applied skills in quantitative methods and should be highly motivated and qualified to teach undergraduate courses in methodology. The person in this position will be expected to foster cross-disciplinary connections at Dartmouth around quantitative methods. Dartmouth is highly committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive population of students, faculty, and staff. We are especially interested in applicants who are able to work effectively with students, faculty, and staff from all backgrounds, including but not limited to: racial and ethnic minorities, women, individuals who identify with LGBTQ+ communities, individuals with disabilities, individuals from lower income backgrounds, and/or first generation college graduates. Applicants should state in their cover letter how their teaching, research, service, and/or life experiences prepare them to advance Dartmouth's commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

New Course offering: QSS 30.09/QBS 181 Data Wrangling

QSS is offering the opportunity for undergraduates to take a fall quarter course in the Quantitative Biomedical Sciences program. The course is QSS 30.09/QBS 181, Data Wrangling. It is a cross-listed graduate course and fulfills a methods-oriented requirements in either the QSS major or minor.

Interested students should note that this course will be offered at a special time on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:00 - 5:30 pm. However, the course appears on the timetable as ARR. As a graduate seminar, QSS 30.09/QBS 181 is offered at a different time than undergraduate courses are normally offered. QSS 30.09/QBS 181 conflicts with the 2A time slot. 

The instructor of QSS 30.09/QBS 181 will be Dr. Carly Bobak.

QSS major Elliot Ng served as a marshal of the Class of 2021

Elliot Ng, a member of the Class of 2021 and a Quantitative Social Science Major at Dartmouth College, was chosen by his class to be a marshal. Marshals are chosen by their class for traits that create a positive impact.

The 2021 marshals were asked to write about their time at Dartmouth and to answer this question:
 

As a marshal, it is your job to lead your class into the graduation ceremony. Given the circumstances of the past year, what is your message to rally the Dartmouth Class of 2021 on this graduation day?

See what Elliot and the rest of the marshals wrote to their fellow class members: Marshals Lead the Class of 2021 With Words of Inspiration.

Professor Rockmore talks about his father's theorem

Dan Rockmore, member of the Steering Committee of the Program in Quantitative Social Science (QSS), recently published an article on his father's theorem in The New Yorker.

Read the article here.

QSS students and faculty member publish on misperceptions about Covid-19 and climate change

One of the hallmarks of the Program in Quantitative Social Science (QSS) at Dartmouth College is student research, and this is nicely exemplified by a recent article published by Professor of Government Brendan Nyhan and the 14 students who took his Experiments in Politics course (QSS 30.03) in Spring 2020.  This course is cross-listed in the Department of Government as GOVT 83.21.  The article by Professor Nyhan and his 14 co-authors is titled, "The limited effects of partisan and consensus messaging in correcting science misperceptions" was published in Research & Politics 8(2). 

The abstract of the article is follows:

The spread of COVID-19 misinformation highlights the need to correct misperceptions about health and science. Research on climate change suggests that informing people about a scientific consensus can reduce misinformation endorsement, but these studies often fail to isolate the effects of consensus messaging and may not translate to other issues. We therefore conduct a survey experiment comparing standard corrections with those citing a scientific consensus for three issues: COVID-19 threat, climate change threat, and vaccine efficacy. We find that consensus corrections are never more effective than standard corrections at countering misperceptions and generally fail to reduce them with only one exception. We also find that consensus corrections endorsed by co-partisans do not reduce misperceptions relative to standard corrections, while those endorsed by opposition partisans are viewed as less credible and can potentially even provoke a backfire effect. These results indicate that corrections citing a scientific consensus, including corrective messages from partisans, are less effective than previous research suggests when compared with appropriate baseline messages.


Among the student co-authors of the article are several who are majoring, or have majored, in QSS.  These individuals are Vignesh Chockalingam '20, Erik Jones '20, Zoe Chandra '21, Amy Hu '21, Justin Kramer '21, Madeleine Sach '21, Yong Sheng Ng '21, Sarah Solomon '21, and Victor Wu '22.  Madeleine recently defended her QSS honors thesis, written over the course of the 2020-21 academic year.  The title of the thesis is, "The Effect of Cues from Groups with Issue Relevance on American Public Opinion."

Professor Nyhan, a member of the QSS Steering Committee, writes regularly with QSS students and teaches his experiments class every year.  Other sections of this course are taught by Assistant Professor of Government Mia Costa and Assistant Professor of Government Charles Crabtree.