Laura K. Nelson

Laura K. Nelson is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Director of the Centre for Computational Social Science. Her research focuses on computational methods applied to social movements, gender studies, and text analysis. She holds a PhD and MA from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

**Education**:

• PhD in Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
• MA in Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
• BA in Sociology (Analysis and Research), University of Wisconsin, Madison

Her work bridges sociology and computational methods, examining topics like institutional equity (e.g., NSF ADVANCE), gender disparities in academia, and the use of AI in qualitative research. She has published extensively in journals like *American Journal of Sociology* and serves on editorial boards of *Poetics* and *Acta Sociologica*. Her recent projects include analyzing gender bias in evaluations and leveraging machine learning for feminist social science.

**Grants & Advising**: Her postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley and Northwestern University focused on data science and interdisciplinary collaboration. She advises on AI ethics and computational grounded theory, and her teaching includes courses on computational methods in the social sciences.

**Affiliations**: She is elected council member for the American Sociological Association’s sections on Sociology of Culture and Mathematical Sociology. She also contributes to initiatives like the *Society-Centered AI* program at Duke University.