Tag: Academia

  • Thinking about causality with both numbers and reason

    When you move from area studies to a social science, there are bound to be some changes of pace. Perhaps the most interesting problem to arise for me is how to understand causality and how to weigh the discipline’s emphasis on quantitative analysis with my considerably more developed skills in qualitative research and reasoning. A…


  • Rational choice arguments should carry a standard disclaimer

    If every work that discusses reality under the rubric of rational self-interested actors carried this disclaimer, we all would be saved a lot of grief: Since human nature is profoundly complex and individuals rarely act out of unmixed motives, the assumption of rational self-interest that I have been using to develop this theory is obviously…


  • Internet and society resources at University of Washington

    As a new graduate student at the University of Washington, I’ve been hunting around for the various projects, professors, centers, departments, etc., that deal with internet and society issues. I’m going to make a list of links here and update them from time to time. If you find this post and I’m missing something, drop…


  • Beijing Universities Top U.S. Doctorate Feeder List

    Beijing University (aka Peking University) and Qinghua University (Tsinghua) top Science magazine’s list of top undergraduate schools for students obtaining U.S. Ph.D.s. A new study has found that the most likely undergraduate alma mater for those who earned a Ph.D. in 2006 from a U.S. university was … Tsinghua University. Peking University, its neighbor in…