Biography

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen and the Director of Graduate Studies (studieleder) for the interdisciplinary MSc in Social Data Science. At UCPH, I am also affiliated with the Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science (SODAS) and coordinate the Welfare, Inequality, and Mobility research group. In my research, I use computational and experimental methods to examine intergroup relations leveraging digital trace, text, survey, and administrative data. Before joining the UCPH faculty, I earned my B.A.from Freie Universität in my hometown Berlin, Germany, and my Ph.D. from Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina.

In my recent work, I have used Google search data to study the link between discrimination and radicalization; and combined digital trace data, large-scale field experiments, and panel surveys to test the effect of exposure to opposing views on social media on political polarization and the impact of the Russian influence campaign on US Twitter user political attitudes and behavior.

I am teaching or co-teaching a number of classes at the University of Copenhagen ranging from political sociology to introductory Python and R.

At the Department of Sociology, I (co-)instruct the following classes:

• Introduction to R (Fall 2021, Fall 2022)
• Introduction to Quantitative Text Analysis (Spring 2021 (BSc/MSc), Fall 2022 (BSc))
• Basic Statistics (Spring 2022)
• Contemporary Societal Problems (Fall 2021))
• Knowledge, Organization, and Politics (Spring 2020)

In the MSc in Social Data Science, I (co-)instruct the following classes:

• Social Data Science Base Camp (Fall 2020, Fall 2021)
• Elementary Social Data Science (Fall 2020, Fall 2021)

I am also teaching occasional workshops on introductory R (e.g. at GESIS (October 2021, October 2022) or the Copenhagen Summer University) or the use of the texnets R package, and have previously been part of the organizing team for the Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science.

Below, you can find more detailed descriptions and material for selected courses.

• fmerhout@soc.ku.dk
• +45 35 32 34 64
• Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, DK-1353 Copenhagen K