Hello, world! I’m Jana (🎵). As a computational social scientist, I use statistical models to study complex patterns in human behaviour ranging from how systems 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.
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:
Apr. 2025: Successfully passed my doctoral preliminary exam and advanced to PhD candidacy
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