Daniel Cowen on

Workshop Guide

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the tutorial! By the end of this tutorial, this webpage will be yours! Yay!

Before the Workshop

Make sure you have done the following before you arrive. If something doesn’t work, come early and we’ll sort it out.

Planning what you want your page to look like

Find 1-2 webpages of scholars that you like. Consider: What info do they give about themselves? How do they list their publications, interests, etc?

Accounts to create

GitHub — where your website’s code lives
Netlify — where your website gets published
KiloCode - gives you access to agentic AI coding (for free)

Software to install

Attention: if you’re on a MacBook, I suggest first installing Homebrew and then using it to install these things.

VSCodium — your code editor (free, open-source version of VS Code)
Hugo — the tool that will “build” your site. Follow the instructions for your operating system on that page. (Once again, if Mac use the homebrew instructions!)
Git — version control. Follow the instructions for your operating system.
GitHub Desktop — a visual interface for Git. After installing, sign in with your GitHub account.
KiloCode — First, open VSCodium: open VSCodium. Then click the Extensions icon (left sidebar, looks like four squares forming a bigger square) → search “Kilo Code” → Install

Readiness check — do this before the workshop

Go through each item below. If any of them fail, try to solve it a bit before coming to our meetup (e.g. use a search engine or ask UvA AI Chat).

Check	How to test
VSCodium opens	Launch it — you should see the editor
GitHub Desktop opens	Launch it — you should be logged in to your GitHub account
KiloCode is ready	Open VSCodium → click the robot icon → you should see a chat box and your model selected

Then, using the terminal:

Mac: press Cmd + Space, type “Terminal”, press Enter
Windows: press the Windows key, type “PowerShell”, press Enter

Check	How to test
Hugo is installed	Open a terminal and type `hugo version` — you should see a version number
Git is installed	Open a terminal and type `git --version` — you should see a version number

If all is good, you’re ready for the workshop! Yay!

CV

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EXPERIENCE

University of Groningen

PhD Candidate – Sociology | November 2022 – Present | Groningen, Netherlands

Exploring how identities, social network structures, and platform mechanics shape cooperation & conflict in online communities. Focus on Habermasian deliberation & civil disagreement in toxic political spaces.

Key Contributions:

Conducted empirical analysis in R and developed agent-based models (ABMs) in Python to understand toxicity and constructive disagreement in political forums
Simulated how platform design shapes online discourse
Digital Methods: Python, NetLogo, RSiena (social network analysis), NLP (spaCy, NLTK), web scraping, and API data collection

Research Stay: Embedded in the AICS at the ILLC, working with Petter Törnberg on agent-based modelling of platform mechanics and constructive disagreement in online political forums. Developing foundational architecture for dissertation’s simulation study.

Teaching & Supervision:

Lecturer and teaching assistant in agent-based modelling and computational social science
Supervised student projects on platform governance, digital governance, and the critical development of large language models (in collaboration with CBS)

Academic Service:

Former secretary of Norms at Networks research cluster (organized weekly seminars & presentations)
Current managing editor of Rationality and Society (first point of contact for manuscript submissions; organize quarterly issues)

Utrecht University

Junior Researcher in Entrepreneurship | October 2021 – October 2022 | Utrecht, Netherlands

Designed web scraping pipelines (Python) and analysed social and economic data for research on household innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems
Conducted mixed-methods research (interviews + data analysis) on household innovation in South Africa
Contributed to social media strategy for Utrecht School of Economics (grew following to 1000+ in under a year)
Organized the first ever Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Winter School

EARLY CAREER EXPERIENCE

SEO Analyst | Cheadle Thompson & Haysom Attorneys | Johannesburg, South Africa | Jul – Aug 2019

Used platform metrics and digital trace analysis of website visitors to optimize engagement

Web Development Intern | Liquid Thought | Cape Town, South Africa | Jun – Jul 2017

Designed user interfaces (Figma, WordPress) for a professional social media platform

Behavioral Economics Intern | Genesis Analytics | Johannesburg, South Africa | May – Jun 2017

Developed behavioral nudges for clients, applicable to studying how platform design shapes user interactions

EDUCATION

Maastricht University

M.Sc. Business Intelligence & Smart Services | Estimated Graduation: August 2021

Thesis: “Demographic Mixing Patterns and Job Acquisition in Professional Social Networks” – Used Python and R to model social network structures and their economic impacts. Supervisor: Leto Peel.

Coursework: BI & database modeling; Data wrangling, processing, and display with R; Machine Learning with R; Data visualization with Tableau

Award: 1st Place, TecAlliance Smart Service Project – Developed Prioritizr, a recommender system for the automotive industry

B.Sc. Economics and Management of Information | August 2020

Thesis: “The Value of an Update: Legacy Systems and Knowledge-Management Performance” – Supervisor: Dr. Anant Joshi

Coursework: Statistical analysis & forecasting; micro-macro economics; information, knowledge, and data management; ERP, DSS & system analysis + design; Spreadsheets & Web Development

Erasmus Exchange: Uppsala University, Sweden – Fall 2019 semester (Organizational Behavior & International Business)

RESEARCH OUTPUTS

Peer Reviewed Publications

Cowen, D., Stark, T., Frey, V., & Flache, A. (2026). Trends of Friends – Time dynamics of Surface- and Deep-level traits in friendship formation and maintenance. Social Networks, 84, 180–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2025.10.001
de Jong, J. P. J., Mulhuijzen, M., Cowen, D., Onyango, L., & Kraemer-Mbula, E. (2025). Household sector innovation, diffusion failure, and business ownership: Evidence from South Africa. Science and Public Policy, 52(4), 613–629. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scaf009

Policy Reports

de Jong, J. P. J., Mulhuijzen, M., Cowen, D., Kraemer-Mbula, E., Onyango, L., & von Hippel, E. (2023). Making the Invisible Visible: Informal Innovation in South Africa. United Nations Development Programme. https://www.undp.org/acceleratorlabs/publications/informalinnovationresearch

Conference Proceedings

Rigtering, C., Mulhuijzen, M., Hughes, M., & Cowen, D. (2024). The Effect of Entrepreneurial Orientation on Employee Well-Being. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2024(1), 17102. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMPROC.2024.17102abstract

Under Review

Cowen, D., Frey, V., Stark, T., and Flache, A. Toxicity Comes in Threads: Charting the Course of Inter-Partisan Toxicity in a Popular Political Subreddit (November 13, 2025). Available at SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6334218
Cowen, D., Frey, V., Stark, T. Breaking the Downward Spiral in Online Political Discourse: How Constructive Dialogue Can Tame Toxicity. (Under review)

Selected Conference Presentations & Invited Talks

2025, Leveraging High-Performance Computing in Analytical Sociology, Oral Presentation (Invited Speaker), DoesItCompute, Groningen, Netherlands
2025, Toxicity Comes in Threads: Charting the Course of Inter-Partisan Toxicity in a Popular Political Subreddit, Poster Presentation, IC2S2, Norrkoping, Sweden
2024, Who would I like to know? Surface and Deep Level Traits in Friendships, Oral Presentation, Sunbelt, Edinburgh, Scotland
2024, Multiple Imputations for Data in the Dynamic Friendship Process, Oral Presentation (Invited Speaker), Workshop on Agent Based Models of Social Networks 2024, Milan, Italy

Workshops Given

2024, Web Scraping Scientific Co-publishing Networks, Workshop Tutorial (with Jochems Tolsma & Rob Franken), Sunbelt, Edinburgh, Scotland

Peer Review

2025: Reviewer for JASSS (Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation)

TECHNICAL SKILLS & INTERESTS

Digital & Computational Methods: Social media data collection (Reddit API, Twitter API, PushShift), cross-platform digital trace analysis, NLP (spaCy, NLTK, Perspective API), network analysis (RSiena, igraph, NetworkX), agent-based modelling (MESA, NetLogo), DMI tools (4CAT), web scraping, high-performance computing

Statistical Methods: Bayesian beta regression, generalized additive models, multilevel modelling, machine learning

Programming: Python (pandas, NetworkX, spaCy, NLTK, MESA, Streamlit), R (tidyverse, RSiena, igraph, brms), JavaScript (ReactJS), SQL, NetLogo

Visualisation & Dissemination: Matplotlib, Tableau, Streamlit (interactive research tools), Adobe Suite, Figma

Languages: English (fluent), Dutch (A2/B1), Afrikaans (competent)

Interests: Tennis & football, politics, photography, music production

Publications

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Peer Reviewed Publications

Cowen, D., Stark, T., Frey, V., & Flache, A. (2026). Trends of Friends – Time dynamics of Surface- and Deep-level traits in friendship formation and maintenance. Social Networks, 84, 180–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2025.10.001
de Jong, J. P. J., Mulhijuzen, M., Cowen, D., Onyango, L., & Kraemer-Mbula, E. (2025). Household sector innovation, diffusion failure, and business ownership: Evidence from South Africa. Science and Public Policy, 52(4), 613–629. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scaf009

Conference Proceedings

Rigtering, C., Mulhijuzen, M., Hughes, M., & Cowen, D. (2024). The Effect of Entrepreneurial Orientation on Employee Well-Being. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2024(1), 17102. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMPROC.2024.17102abstract (paper under review at journal)

Policy Reports

de Jong, J. P. J., Mulhijuzen, M., Cowen, D., Kraemer-Mbula, E., Onyango, L., & von Hippel, E. (2023). Making the Invisible Visible: Informal Innovation in South Africa. United Nations Development Programme. https://www.undp.org/acceleratorlabs/publications/informalinnovationresearch

Preprints

Cowen, D., Frey, V., Stark, T., and Flache, A., Toxicity Comes in Threads: Charting the Course of Inter-Partisan Toxicity in a Popular Political Subreddit (November 13, 2025). Available at SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6334218 (Under review)

Research & Activities

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Research Projects

SCOOP: Sustainable Cooperation Program

I am a PhD researcher in the SCOOP (Sustainable Cooperation Program), a transdisciplinary research and training centre studying how to make society more resilient through sustainable cooperation.

Research Focus: Within the SCOOP program, I work on the project “Identities and Networks: Social Mechanisms Linking Group Identities, Social Network Structures, and Sustainable Cooperation”. This research investigates how identities, social network structures, group norms + expectations and the platforms that these operate on shape cooperation and conflict in various online and offline communities. Recently, the focus is on online political discussion groups, with a focus on Habermasian deliberation and civil disagreement in toxic political spaces.

About SCOOP: SCOOP is a consortium of researchers from five Dutch universities (University of Groningen, Utrecht University, VU Amsterdam, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Radboud University Nijmegen) dedicated to understanding sustainable cooperation across multiple domains: Care, Inclusion, and Work. Since 2017, SCOOP has been investigating the theoretical and practical foundations of cooperation resilience, addressing how societies can maintain high levels of care, work, and inclusion despite changing circumstances.

The program operates through four multidisciplinary work packages and maintains an open-access research data infrastructure to advance transdisciplinary collaboration in cooperation studies. SCOOP’s expanded successor program, SOCION, continues this research with a focus on social cohesion.

Key Resources:

Academic Activities & Service

Managing Editor, Rationality and Society Journal

I serve as Managing Editor of Rationality and Society, an international peer-reviewed journal published by SAGE. In this role, I:

Serve as the first point of contact for manuscript submissions
Coordinate the editorial review process
Organize and oversee quarterly issue publication

Rationality and Society is a leading venue for research at the intersection of sociology, economics, philosophy, and psychology, publishing cutting-edge scholarship on rational choice theory, game theory, institutional analysis, and behavioral economics.

Secretary, Norms and Networks Cluster (2022–2026)

I served as Secretary of the Norms and Networks Cluster (NNC), a research cluster based at the University of Groningen that studies social phenomena including segregation, opinion polarization, and cooperation through mathematical modeling, game-theoretic analysis, and computer simulations.

Responsibilities included:

Organizing weekly seminars and research presentations
Coordinating cluster activities and facilitating collaboration among members
Managing cluster communications and logistics

The NNC brings together researchers interested in understanding classical sociological phenomena through formal modeling and computational approaches, bridging traditional sociology with quantitative methods.

Research Interests

My research integrates computational social science, online political communication, and platform governance. I am particularly interested in:

How social network structures and group identities shape cooperation and conflict
Mechanisms of toxic escalation and de-escalation in online political discourse
Platform design and its effects on democratic deliberation
Agent-based modelling approaches to understanding online behavior
Computational methods for studying digital trace data

Teaching

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Current Teaching Positions

Application of Theories

2023 – Present | University of Groningen
Lecturer & Tutorial Lead | 70–100 students

Responsibilities:

Designed course curriculum and assignments
Delivered weekly lectures
Ran tutorials to reinforce key concepts
Graded assignments and provided detailed feedback

Collaborative Data Project

2023 – Present | University of Groningen
Project Supervisor | 5 students per group

Responsibilities:

Supervised project groups through empirical research cycles
Liaison with Dutch central statistics bureau for data access and guidance
Graded project reports and presentations

Platform Economy & Business

2022 | Utrecht University
Lecturer

Responsibilities:

Delivered lectures on platform economics and digital business models
Supervised student presentations and provided feedback

Workshops Given

Web Scraping Scientific Co-publishing Networks (2024)
Co-facilitated workshop with Jochems Tolsma & Rob Franken
Sunbelt International Network Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland

Teaching Philosophy

My lectures tend to be interactive — I do a lot of live coding and try to leave room for questions throughout rather than saving them for the end. I find that working through real problems together, including when things don’t work as expected, gives students a much clearer picture of what doing research actually looks like.

Tutorials are where I focus on making sure students have genuinely understood something before they’re asked to do it independently. Complex methods especially benefit from being walked through step by step before an assignment goes out.

I’m happy to discuss projects or methods with students outside of class — feel free to reach out.