A Mathematics Course for Political and Social Research

Understanding contemporary social and data sciences requires a substantial mathematical background. Unfortunately, many people interested in pursuing careers in those fields don’t have the required background, either because it was not available to them or because they were not told of the need for it.

In 2013, Will Moore and I published a book designed to address both underlying issues and provide that background: A Mathematics Course for Political and Social Research, with Princeton University Press. In that book, we not only lay out the necessary mathematical foundation in an intuitive format, we also explain why the reader should care about learning each element of that foundation. You can see its Table of Contents, Errata, and Selected answers, including worked problems. For a full solution set, which is limited to instructors only, please e-mail me directly.

The following year I created a series of video lectures that Duke Political Science, as well as other programs, have been using since as an online “math camp” before entry to the program. All lectures are freely available on my YouTube Channel. That channel also contains a first course in research methods. I have put together a Syllabus with direct links to all videos, which is a good place to start. You can also check out some additional Problem Sets and their Solutions, as well as the information Duke Political Science sent along to its 2019 Math Camp.

I hope you find this course of use. Please feel free to leave comments below, or on the videos themselves, should you have them.