Northwestern Learning Sciences PhD program map
Out of curiosity/boredom, I was playing with this web tool (Kumi) that makes network diagrams and started to map out PhD advisor relationships at Northwestern University, where I completed my PhD. It got out of hand - I ended up mapping the entire PhD program, I think. It was a matter of ‘oh, but what about…” and then hours passed. I don’t expect to maintain it - it was something fun to do in an evening. I shared this on social media and got generally “intrigued” reactions. A few points about decisions for how this map was made, which were exercised for ease and consistency :
It includes people who were tenure track faculty appointed in Learning Sciences at Northwestern University at some point in time. This excludes individuals who were terrific research faculty and research scientists, as well as post-docs who completed their doctorates elsewhere. Those individuals definitely contributed to the vibrancy of the program and the environment - it’s just a level of work and digging I was not willing to do for a ‘quick’ toying around.
It is not perfect in terms of including all officially appointed NU LS appointed tenured/tenure track faculty. There are many psych and CS professors who have/had appointments. I have not known them to chair any LS students. They are excellent scholars though, and may be listed as having an LS appointment. Preference was given to people whose PRIMARY or presumed 50% appointment was in learning sciences, likely meaning their salaries were paid by funds set for the learning sciences program. (I don’t know this for sure, I’m not the dean there). This isn’t a perfect cut-off rule, given my limited knowledge of appointment structure.
The links are for individuals who were officially chairs for dissertation committees, which is used as proxy for “advisor”. Proxies are not the be-all end-all. This turned out to be a complicated matter for many people. Many people called out objections that they were closer to some person or another or more mentorship came from a person - which is great. I love that I came from a community that is so internally intellectually supportive. For the sake of consistency to draw a map, the link is the officially listed dissertation chair. This was determined from 1. Looking at actual digital dissertation documents where acknowledgments sections named an individual as chair or advisor (“and thanks to my advisor, Professor Z), professional CVs from involved individuals (listed in a section as Chaired, excluding those that are listed as serving as committee members), and when no other information could be found, existing academic family tree websites (which have errors, I noticed - I tried to avoid repeating some of them when I knew officially it was recorded elsewhere differently). A few people in early stages reached out to plead the case that their chair was actually person X or included person Y, typically restricted because of university rules related to appointment when someone left the university but the student stayed, etc, so there are a very small number of those accommodations.
Only time at Northwestern is counted. If a faculty member had advisees/chaired students at another institution, they are not included unless that person somehow got a northwestern affiliation
There is color coding, but the tool is clunky and I didn’t have a key made because it was for fun. It was just quick-pick of color palette options. It turned out as I updated some nodes, others would change too (buggy tool!), so I decided to stop playing whack-a-mole at a certain point, meaning errors will exist. The color codes are:
Red - for past or present Northwestern LS faculty, for a year or for many years
Yellow - for tenure track faculty in a predominantly research role at present time
Lime green - for faculty in a predominantly teaching capacity at present time
Dark green - for research associates (incl. post doc appointments) with a university
Sea green? - Non-profit agency like a museum, library, or foundation
Orange - Educational R&D entity (like ETS, AIR, WestEd, BSCS)
Electric yellow/super light green - Predominantly an industry position at current time, even if they have other appointments in the academy (such as google, amazon, apple)
Brown - University employment in an administrative or other capacity
Purple - consultancy, typically independent and self-run
Asterisk* (not a color…)- means that person was officially listed as chair/co-chair of dissertation committee but did not have a tenure track appointment in northwestern’s learning sciences program.
Gray - important work and activities that are beyond a categorical specification
Categorization is not intended to elevate or discount the importance of work that any of these individuals are doing, nor comment on past or future (some individuals had been faculty and opted for industry or university or community work, etc. Some made an explicit decision not to pursue faculty options. etc.) It’s just a snapshot with an imperfect categorization scheme done on an evening whim.
This was last modified on 7/15/2020 and has been checked by a number of alumni and faculty - so it should be acceptable although imperfect.
Have fun with it.