The PRISM Speaker Series provides a unique forum to present cutting-edge methodological work. As new speakers are scheduled, they will be listed here, so be sure to visit us frequently. 

Apr 13, 2026, Myriam Shiran, Postdoctoral Fellow in Socio-Political Analysis and AI. 

Title: AI-Assisted Research Workflow: An Introduction to Building Reproducible Projects with Claude Code and GitHub

Abstract: This workshop introduces social scientists to AI-assisted research workflows using Claude Code, Cowork, and GitHub. No advanced programming experience is required. Participants will follow a realistic project lifecycle from start to finish: Creating a GitHub repository, cloning it locally, and then using Claude Code to brainstorm ideas, plan an analysis, write and debug Python code, and prepare a publishable Jupyter notebook. By the end of the session, you’ll have hands-on familiarity with how these tools can be integrated into transparent and collaborative research practices.

Mar 26, 2026, PRISM Methods Panel

This event is meant to be an informal discussion with some of our methods faculty members. They will be sharing broadly about their methodological approaches in their academic work. This could include a recent method they used for a paper, some tips/tricks about which methods best answer which types of questions, etc. 

Mar 11, 2026, Myriam Shiran, Postdoctoral Fellow in Socio-Political Analysis and AI. 

Title: Using Audiovisual Data in Research: The Case of State Supreme Court Oral Arguments

Abstract: Video recordings are increasingly available, including those of federal, state, and local government proceedings, yet underutilized in social science research. This workshop covers collecting, processing, and analyzing audiovisual data to capture nonverbal characteristics and paralinguistic features of political communication, using the California Supreme Court oral arguments as a use case.  We will walk through a pipeline that includes data collection, transcription, speaker diarization, gesture recognition, and large language model classification to answer substantive questions about court proceedings, and we will discuss the practical challenges researchers face. The goal is to introduce scholars to video archives as a primary data source for studying elite behavior, deliberation, and institutional dynamics.

Past speakers:

• Chris Achen 
• Bruce Desmarais 
• Andrew Gelman 
• Kristian Gleditsch 
• Ben Jones 
• Matt Lebo 
• Suzanna Linn
• Jason Morgan 
• Douglas Rivers
• Stuart Shulman 
• Rocio Titiunik