People
Who We Are
People
Understanding complex social problems is easier when data scientists, social scientists, humanists, and other difference makers can be assembled around the same table. It also means drawing from diverse methods, theories, and perspectives.
At the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research, we’re building an innovative community of scholars who not only pursue collaborative text analytics research using our data, software, and expertise, but are deeply invested in promoting societal well-being. The Cline Center affiliates network includes faculty, students, and staff from six colleges at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and from collaborating institutions spread across five continents.
The Cline Center is a collaborative enterprise that draws faculty, staff, students, and difference-makers from the public and private sectors into interdisciplinary research projects that address real-world problems. Core staff and faculty members working in our Research Park location manage day-to-day operations involving faculty fellows, graduate fellows, research assistants, interns, and analysts. We also support collaborative projects through our network of faculty and research affiliates spanning the Urbana-Champaign campus as well as other institutions across the globe.
Here’s who is making a difference with the Cline Center.
Ekin Alpay is a 2024 Schroeder Fellow. Her research project conducts a descriptive analysis of anti-democratic rhetoric within partisan media, utilizing sentimental variables to trace its evolution. Focused on the coverage of anti-democratic events and the rhetoric surrounding them, the study examines various forms of media content, including speeches and articles. Leveraging the Global News Index of the Cline Center, it aims to discern patterns and trends in the portrayal of anti-democratic events across different media outlets. Her research seeks to deepen understanding of the dissemination and impact of anti-democratic rhetoric within contemporary discourse.
Myung Jung Kim is a 2024 Schroeder Fellow. Her research project focuses on how armed actors accused of war crimes and other mass atrocities confront or manage to evade punishment in today's international legal context. In particular, she explores how the increased risk of prosecution under international and universal jurisdiction impacts rebels' operations in foreign territories—previously considered "safe havens"—thereby influencing the operational strategies of rebel groups, the peace process, and the outcomes of conflicts. Specifically, by utilizing the Cline Center's Historical Phoenix Event Data, she aims to examine the dynamics of cross-border violence spillover and the external state sponsorship in supporting foreign rebel groups within an evolving legal landscape. For more detailed information about her research, please visit www.myungjungkim.com.
Alesha Lewis is a 2024 Schroeder Fellow. Her study will include both a statistical analysis of police force as well as an analysis of the news coverage surrounding shootings across the US. She plans to examine whether the race of a victim predicts the likelihood of an outcome being fatal with the SPOTLITE data set. Using the Global News Index and the Archer system, she intends to examine articles that cover police shootings and use discourse features to analyze differences in sentiment, depending on the race of the civilian involved. To observe what kinds of shooting incidents generate negative news coverage, she will also conduct a search for news stories on protests that were related to police violence against African Americans.