Dr. Alejandra Rodríguez Sánchez

I am a sociologist / computational social scientist working in the field of demography and social inequalities. As a postdoctoral researcher, my work has been focused on understanding irregular migration (what data is there about it, how to conceptualize it, what, how to measure it) and the evaluation of public policies targeted at this phenomenon using causal inference methods. In my research, I make use of machine learning and statistical modeling more broadly, as well as traditional and innovative data sources like digital trace data.
My research project as a fellow in the Postdoc Network Brandenburg at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Potsdam is aimed at advancing the uses of agent-based modeling (ABM) and language models (LM, both large and small) for demographic research, with a particular focus on the question of how predictable human mobility (e.g., migration) and other socio-demographic events are. But also, my work will delve into the limitations of ABM and LMs from various critical perspectives. During my fellowship, I will also be teaching courses on quantitative methods and political demography.