Rafael Alvarado is the Program Director of the M.S. in Data Science and an Associate Professor at the School of Data Science. His areas of research include digital humanities, text analytics, and the anthropology of information.
A digital humanist, Alvarado has a background in anthropology. He became interested in data science when he realized he could combine his interests in human culture and quantitative methods. Prior to coming back to UVA, Alvarado worked at Princeton University as a Coordinator of Humanities and Social Sciences Computing. There, he worked on several projects, including the Charrette Project, which digitized an Old French manuscript of an Arthurian legend, Chrétien de Troyes’ Knight of the Cart, which tells the story of Lancelot.
At the School of Data Science, Alvarado teaches courses on Exploratory Text Analytics and the Practice and Application of Data Science. He emphasizes the importance of ethics in data science to his students as they look to the future of data science.
Alvarado holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Virginia. He earned his M.A. and B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Virginia.
