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 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