Omer Yalcin

Omer Yalcin is a Lecturer in the Data Analytics and Computational Social Science (DACSS) program at the School of Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst. He holds a PhD in Political Science and Social Data Analytics from Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on computational social science, elite political networks, and digital politics, utilizing open data sources like Wikidata and social media platforms. He teaches courses in statistics, machine learning, and network analysis for social scientists.

Education:

• PhD in Political Science and Social Data Analytics, Pennsylvania State University

Research Interests:

• Elite political networks (kinship, support ties)
• Social media analysis of politics (YouTube, Twitter)
• Machine learning and computational methods
• Open data practices and bias detection in language models

Teaching:

• Introduction to Python for Data Science (Graduate)
• Machine Learning for Social Scientists (Graduate)
• Quantitative Analysis (Graduate)

His work explores how computational methods can analyze large-scale digital data to understand political dynamics, such as anti-refugee sentiment after terrorist attacks and the structure of authoritarian elite networks. Collaborative projects include bias detection in multilingual language models and the impact of YouTube's informational interventions.