PhD in Social Data Analytics at Pennsylvania State University

Students electing this degree program through participating programs earn a degree with a dual-title at the Ph.D. level, i.e., in (graduate program name) and Social Data Analytics.

The following graduate programs offer a dual-title degree in Social Data Analytics:

• Ph.D in Human Development and Family Studies and Social Data Analytics
• Ph.D. in Informatics and Social Data Analytics
• Ph.D. in Political Science and Social Data Analytics
• Ph.D. in Psychology and Social Data Analytics
• Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Data Analytics
• Ph.D. in Statistics and Social Data Analytics

The Social Data Analytics dual-title degree program is administered by the Social Data Analytics Committee, which is responsible for the management of the program. The committee maintains program definition, identifies faculty and courses appropriate to the program, and recommends policy and procedures for its operation to the Dean of the Graduate School. The program enables students from diverse graduate programs to attain and be identified with an interdisciplinary array of tools, techniques, and methodologies for social data analytics, while maintaining a close association with a home discipline. Social data analytics is the integration of social scientific, computational, informational, statistical, and visual analytic approaches to the analysis of large or complex data that arise from human interaction. To pursue a dual-title degree under this program the student must apply to the Graduate School and register through one of the approved graduate programs.

The curriculum of the Dual-title degree program in Social Data Analytics is designed to develop PhDs with the skills, experience and instincts to lead science and broader society in engaging and addressing the challenges and opportunities arising from big social data. The learning objectives for each student who completes the program are:

1. Combining Social Science and Computational Science: With training in social science disciplines and statistical, computational, visual analytics, students cultivate an understanding of how social research is conducted with advanced analytical approaches.
2. Contributing to the field of Social Data Analytics: Students in the program learn how to, through their own research programs, expand the capabilities of the multidisciplinary field of social data analytics, and use those capabilities creatively to answer important social scientific questions and to address grand social challenges.
3. Understand basic and applied use of social data analytics: Students in the program will understand how to use and apply their research skills in both academic and private sector employment settings.
4. Diverse and ethical perspectives on Social Data Analytics: The training in the SoDA program leads students to instinctively consider diverse and multinational perspectives on social data issues, to instinctively and effectively prioritize ethics, scientific responsibility, and social consequences in the creation and use of social data, and to communicate effectively with both scientific and nonscientific audiences.