BA/BS in Social Data Analytics

Social Data Analytics is an undergraduate minor offered by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Simon Fraser University in conjunction with the Departments of Economics, Linguistics, Philosophy, Political Science, English, Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, Statistics and Actuarial Science, and the School of Communication. The program provides interdisciplinary study of statistical and computational methods for analyzing large volumes of digitized, real-world data related to human behaviour, with emphasis on the privacy, ethical, and societal issues surrounding big data and technology. Students learn to collect, analyze, and communicate data-driven insights to the public, scholarly audiences, and policymakers. Coursework begins with SDA 100 (Data Visualization) and SDA 250 (Computational Text Analysis), and culminates in a Capstone Project Seminar in which students work in teams to apply their skills to a real-world social or policy problem. Students complete a minimum of 27 units in total. The program is intended to complement a student's major in the arts and social sciences or a related discipline. Admission is limited: students apply through a formal minor program application, open to both incoming and currently enrolled SFU students.