About

Hello, world! I’m Jana (🎵). As a computational social scientist, I use statistical models to study complex patterns in human behaviour ranging from how cultures evolve to how users act or companies function.

I’m a big believer in the value of mentorship, the importance of scientific outreach, and the power of amplifying women’s voices. With the benefit of my multi-disciplinary background, I especially enjoy tackling the kinds of challenges for which traditional approaches have fallen short. I spend much of my time working on unstructured problems that lack a clear definition or straightforward solution.

  • I’m an award-winning scholar whose research has been federally funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) since 2019, when I was pursuing graduate work at McGill University.
  • I’m the founder and editorial director of Women of Letters, a longform interview series that’s creating spaces for women’s stories of professional success to be seen, celebrated, and shared. You can follow along by subscribing here.
  • I’ve earned two Master’s degrees — an M.S. and an M.A. — and I’m currently working towards a PhD in Information Science at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
  • I’m the developer of Airtime, an open source Python-based project management tool that uses natural language processing to foster more genuinely collaborative work environments.
  • I’m co-authoring a book with Miranda Dunham-Hickman that will be published by Routledge.
  • As a Croatian-Canadian studying in the U.S., I divide my time among the three countries. You can get in touch with me here and learn more about the kinds of projects I’m interested in taking on here.


    News and updates:

  • Dec. 2024: Published a co-authored article, together with Sarah Griebel, Becca Cohen, Lucian Li, Jiayu Liu, Jaihyun Park, and Ted Underwood, in the 2024 Proceedings of the Computational Humanities Research Conference
  • Sep. 2024: Launched the second season of Women of Letters
  • Aug. 2024: Published a co-authored article, together with Alison Fang, in the MIT Science Policy Review
  • Aug. 2024: Awarded a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Information Science from UIUC
  • June 2024: Offered a place in the 2024 Digital Humanities & Research Software Engineering Summer School, co-hosted by the University of Edinburgh Centre for Data, Culture & Society; the University of Cambridge Digital Humanities research centre; the King’s College London Digital Lab; and the Alan Turing Institute
  • May 2024: Started working as a Business Analyst Intern at Grant Street Group
  • Apr. 2024: Awarded the distinction of Phi Kappa Phi membership, offered to the top 10% of graduate students at UIUC based on academic excellence
  • Mar. 2024: Successfully passed my doctoral field exam
  • Jan. 2024: Launched an experiment in open-invitation office hours
  • Nov. 2023: Invited to give a talk on the discovery mechanisms of nascent social networks as part of the Fall 2023 Research Colloquium at the UIUC School of Information Sciences
  • Nov. 2023: Wrapped up the inaugural season of Women of Letters
  • Nov. 2023: Published a co-authored pre-registration for a current project on measures of textual innovation
  • Oct. 2023: Featured in an article published by the UIUC Graduate College
  • Oct. 2023: Co-presented a study on sense of belonging among UIUC students at the Dennis H. May Diversity Conference together with Beth Hoag and Ryan Young
  • Sep. 2023: Featured in an article published by the Princeton Research Computing Center
  • Aug. 2023: Started working as a Data Analyst Intern for the UIUC office of Student Affairs
  • July 2023: Published Airtime, an open source Python-based project management tool
  • July 2023: Awarded sponsorship to attend a week-long software engineering bootcamp at Princeton University
  • June 2023: Published our first Women of Letters interview
  • Apr. 2023: Awarded a Fall 2023 Career Exploration Fellowship from the University of Illinois Graduate College
  • Apr. 2023: Featured in an interview with the McGill Faculty of Arts