Roberto FranzosiProfessor

• PhD in Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, 1981
• BA in Literature, University of Genoa, 1975

ROBERTO FRANZOSI (BA literature, University of Genoa 1975; PhD Sociology, Johns Hopkins 1981) is professor of Sociology and Linguistics. His research interests have been in the study of social protest and violence (e.g., The Puzzle of Strikes: Class and State Strategies in Postwar Italy, Cambridge University Press 1994).

He has had a long-standing interest in issues of language and measurement of text and narrative, with various articles published on the topic as well as four books: Tropes and Figures: Landmark Essays (Routledge 2017), From Words to Number: Narrative, Data, and Social Science (Cambridge University Press 2005), Content Analysis (Sage 2008), and Quantitative Narrative Analysis (Sage 2009).

Using his approach to narrative, Franzosi carried out two projects on the rise of Italian fascism (1919-22) and lynchings in Georgia (1875-1930) using newspapers as sources of data.

• SOC 190: Advertising: The Magic System
• SOC 190: Data Science for Beginners
• SOC 190: Racial Violence in America
• SOC 327: Language and Symbols of Media
• SOC 383: Advertising: Words & Images
• SOC 446W: Big/Small Data & Visualization
• SOC 509: Big/Small Data & Visualization