Irene Morse
Lecturer of Data Analytics and Computational Social Science
Irene Morse is a lecturer in the Data Analytics and Computational Social Science (DACSS) program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Irene Morse earned a PhD in Comparative Politics and Research Methods from the University of Michigan. Her research
looks at political activism among Turkish diaspora communities and transnational online activism against authoritarianism more broadly. She specializes in quantitative text analysis and expansion of NLP resources to languages other than English.
Beyond research, she has a passion for teaching and improving the relevance of pedagogy in the Social Sciences.
Education
- Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Michigan
Research Interests
My research explores the ways in which individual citizens’ beliefs about and understandings of democracy can reinforce or undermine authoritarian rule. As an expert in Turkish and Middle Eastern politics, I leverage insights from this region to push forward the broader comparative literature on authoritarianism, migration, transnational activism, and political communication. To extract these insights, I embrace a mix of both quantitative and qualitative research methods, ranging from interviews and surveys to formal modeling and computational text analysis. My work also consistently transcends subfields and even disciplines, as I have found that literature from American politics, sociology, and migration is all informative to my research goals. I therefore seek to foster collaboration and robust debate with diverse audiences throughout the research process.