CRP 384.12 Seminar
Thurs 2:00 – 5:00pm, SUT 3.126
Open to all SOA and non-SOA graduate students
Alex Karner: alex.karner@utexas.edu
Have you ever wanted to learn to code in Python or R but didn’t know where to start? Have you wanted to use large datasets to visualize, quantify, and address complex problems facing our cities and regions but didn’t feel like you had the technical skills? Dr. Karner’s spring elective is designed just for you.
This seminar will cover fundamental programming and data science techniques, with a focus on using Python and R for spatial analysis, data visualization, and statistical modeling. Alongside technical skill building, we will engage deeply with critical contemporary readings on mobility justice—the idea that access to movement, transportation, and the resources of the city are essential rights. Mobility justice examines the intersecting social, racial, environmental, and spatial dimensions of transportation systems, highlighting how our plans, projects, and programs often perpetuate inequities for communities that have historically—and currently—faced injustice.
These readings will ground our data-driven inquiries—exploring data and methodological limitations, how data representation shapes what can be studied, and how data science can be leveraged for advocacy. Through hands-on projects, you will work with real-world datasets, developing methods with the potential to empower communities that have been historically excluded from decision-making and continue to experience structural violence and disinvestment.
