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Dan Ryan
@djjr

Current Position
University of Toronto (8.2018-present)
Professor, Faculty of Information and Faculty of Law (courtesy) and Director, Bachelor of Information Program

At the Faculty of Information I teach "User Centred Design of Information Systems" and "Computational Thinking" for graduate students and "Introduction to Computational Reasoning" in our undergraduate program and in the Faculty of Law I co-teach (with G. Hadfield) "Legal Design Lab." I continue to think about re-visioning liberal arts education and, with the Schwartz-Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, about how to build bridges between the humanities, social sciences, and computer science to ensure artificial intelligence evolves in a manner that is beneficial to humans.
Previous
University of Southern California (1.2017-6.2018)
Professor of Teaching of Arts, Technology, the Business of Innovation, and Law at Iovine Young Academy and Gould School of Law
Mills College (1.1998-12.2017)
Assistant, Associate, Full Professor of Sociology, Lorey I. Lokey Chair in Ethics (2016-17), Kathryn P. Hannam Professorship in American Studies (2012-15), Robert and Ann Wert Chair (2008-11)
Education

Yale University M.A., M. Phil., Ph.D. Sociology.

Universität Trier, Germany

Guest Student (German/Politics)

New College of Florida B.A. Mathematical, Physical, and Computer Sciences

Courses Taught

User Centred Design of Information Systems • Computational Thinking • Legal Design Lab • Justice Innovation Startup Lab • The Garage Experience • Design Thinking in Higher Education • Legal Design Lab • Ants, Brains, Cities and Software • Computer Applications in the Social Sciences • Computers and Society • Geographic Information Systems • Social Theory • Introduction to Sociology • Junior Pre-Thesis Seminar • Research Methods • Senior Seminar in Sociology • Simulation in the Social and Policy Sciences • Social Control • Social Organization • Social Psychology of Organizations • Sociology of Everyday Life • Statistics • Social Network Analysis • Analysis of Social Structure. Tutorial: Multiagent Simulation and Computer Music • Mathematical Sociology • Network Analysis • Contemporary Social Theory • Tutorial: All by One - Erving Goffman • Programming in Pascal • Compiler Design • Assembly Language Programming.

popUp-courses: Lock Picking • Arduino • Taking Machines Apart • Javascript GIS for Web Pages • Design Thinking • Creative Listening • Research Methods for Designers • Data Do's and Data Don't's for Designers • Prototypes and Epistemology
Evaluations

Leadership Positions
2017 Dean's Cabinet, Iovine Young Academy, Roski School of Art & Design, University of Southern California
2015-17 Mills College, Founder/Director Mills Innovation Lab
2014-15 Dean's Cabinet, Iovine Young Academy, Roski School of Art & Design, University of Southern California
2012-13 Mills College, Chair Course Evaluation Committee
2012-13 Mills College, Chair Strategic Planning Working Group on Undergraduate Program
2011-12 Mills College, Campus Budget Committee
2011-13 Mills College, Chair ad hoc committee on electronic course evaluations.
2011-13 American Sociological Association Section on Communication and Information Technologies, Secretary/Treasurer
2011 Fall Mills College, Chair of Faculty Executive Committee
2010 Mills College, Presidential Search Committee
2010-11 Mills College, Chair of Faculty Executive Committee
2009-10 Mills College, Chair of Faculty Executive Committee
2010 Mills College, Chair of Academic and Social Integration Committee of Retention Task Force
2005-08 Mills College, Department Head, Anthropology and Sociology Department
2008 Mills College, Chair, Sociology Search Committee
2006-08 Mills College, Department Head, Sociology and Anthropology
1997 Yale University, Member University Committee on Campus Planning
1995-98 Yale University, Founder and Coordinator of The City Room at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies
1991-94 New College of Florida. Member, Board of Directors of Alumni Association

Scholarship

Peer Reviewed Publications

ORCID 0000-0001-8627-5029

2015 The Ghosts of Organization Past Temple University Press.
2013 "Democracy and the Information Order" with G. K. Hadfield European Journal of Sociology / Volume 54 / Issue 01 / April 2013, pp 67-95. (PDF)
2008 "Emergent Temporal Effects in Community Initiatives." Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 51, Issue 1, pp. 139–162.
2006 "Getting the Word Out: Notes on the Social Organization of Notification." Sociological Theory, September 2006.
See also Tierney, J. 2007. "As the Grapevine Withers, Spam Filters Take Root." New York Times, 22 May 2007.
2006 "Everything Here is So Political: Separating the Organizationally Normal from the Political in Communities of Organizations" Journal of Drug Issues, vol. 36, no. 2 (Spring 2006).
2005 "Why is it so difficult to form community coalitions?" with Charles Kadushin and Matthew Lindholm. City and Community,4:3 September 2005.
2004 "'Fighting Back' Against Substance Abuse: The Structure and Function of Community Coalitions." Matthew Lindholm, Dan Ryan, Charles Kadushin, Leonard Saxe, Archie Brodsky. Human Organization. Fall 2004. Vol. 63, Iss. 3
Other Publications
2021 "AI Governance: From Principles to Practice" with G. Hadfield, J. Steeve (forthcoming). Schwartz Reisman Institute
for Technology and Society at the University of Toronto.
2020 "Liberating Health Data in a Digital World" with G.Hadfield, J.Steeve, J.Jankovic Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society
2015 "But What if the Shared Vision Is Myopic?," with Sara Goldrick-Rab Chronicle of Higher Education, January 12, 2015.
2014 "Majoring in the 21st Century," Mills Quarterly Winter 2015
2013 Review of Networked by Barry Wellman and Lee Rainie. Contemporary Sociology, March 2014 vol. 43 no. 2 180-183 (doi: 10.1177/0094306114522414b)
2007 Review of Time Use by William Michelson. Contemporary Sociology 36, 3 (May 2007).
2005 "Time and Globalization" in Encyclopedia of Globalization
2004 "Time" in Encyclopedia of Social Theory, edited by George Ritzer
1998 "How to Enjoy a Convention" The Pacific Sociologist Volume 6, #3. September 1998 (Republished by ~25 professional associations and websites)
1995 "The City Room: A View of a Virtual Repository" Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies Newsletter Winter 1995.
1995 Farrar, C., Moskowitz, M., Rae, D. and D. Ryan. New Haven Maps! '95 A book of maps based on GIS analysis of data sets assembled by the Regional Data Cooperative for New Haven. September, 1995.
1989 Le Beau, M. M., D. Ryan, Jr. and M. A. Pericak-Vance. "Report of the committee on the genetic constitution of chromosomes 18 and 19." Cytogenetics & Cell Genetics 1989:51(1-4):338-57.
Unpublished Work
2015 "(Disruptive) Innovation as a Liberal Arts", Washington D.C. Mills Club
2014 "The Small Liberal Arts College as Startup", Palo Alto Mills Club
2013 "Majoring in the 21st Century, or, Liberal Education and Time's Arrow ", Address at Mills College Reunion
2012 "MOOCs and the Future of Small Liberal Arts Colleges," Mills College Provost's Colloquium Series
2011 "In the Beginning..." Mills College Baccalaureate Address
2010 "How to Run a College Like a Business Without Running a College Like a Business"
2010 "A Pre-Transition Agenda for Mills College"
Report from the Chair, January 2010
1999 Organizational Aspects of Urban Social Structure in the Implementation of the Fighting Back Initiative in New Haven, Connecticut 1989-1996
(Dissertation Yale University Department of Sociology)
On the Liberal Arts at Mills
1998 “Urban Communities as Organizational Scrapyards”
1989 "Notes Toward a Social Psychology of Combat" (with Daniel F. Chambliss)
1988 "Big Problems Demand Small Solutions : Towards a General Strategy for Excellence in Education" (with Daniel F. Chambliss)
1972 "A Statistical Study"
Work in Progress
Article "Learning to be a Node"
Book Majoring in the 21st Century
Book Notification and the Information Order
Recent Manuscript Reviewing
Temple University Press, University of Chicago Press, Sage, Symbolic Interaction, Time and Society, The Sociological Quarterly, Social Psychological Quarterly
Online Writing*
blog Innoeduvation
blog The Sociology of Information
blog Assessing Assessing: Organizationally informed commentary on the assessment industry in higher education.
blog Majoring in the 21st Century: Investigations into what college should look like for those whose object of study needs to be the coming century.
blog ICYMI:In Case You Missed It - Higher Education Issues in the Media.
Twitter @djjr
Selected Presentations and Lectures
2020 "Excavating the Why," two-day "Solutions" workshop for Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society & Diabetes Action Canada.
2019 "Collaboration in Interdisciplinary Teams for Law," University of Toronto Faculty of Law "Future Law" lecture series.
"Collaboration for Innovation in Law," Law+Design Ontario Standard Lease Project Workshop, Toronto, Ontario.
"Social Science Research Methods for Graduate Research in Law," University of Toronto Faculty of Law
2018 "Seeding New Career Paths Workshop," at Baker McKenzie Whitespace Legal Collab, Toronto, Ontario.
2017 "Team Matters: Creative Listening in Interdisciplinary Teams," Design@USC.
"Ethnographic Interviewing Workshop," Design for America, USC.
"Design Thinking and the Organization of Creativity," USC Iovine and Young Academy.
2016 "Innovation Education as a Liberal Art," Denver Area Women's College Alumnae Consortium
2015 "Better Meetings: DeBono's Six Hats Method," Iovine Young Academy popUp Series.
2014 "If Small Liberal Arts Colleges Did Not Exist, Would Someone Invent Them?", Address at Palo Alto Mills Alumnae Club Meeting
"Tricks of the Trade for Speaking in Public" Iovine Young Academy popUp Series.
"Learning to be a Node," University of Southern California Department of Sociology.
"Can EdTech Save Liberal Arts Colleges or Can Liberal Arts Colleges Be Saved From EdTech," Mills College Alumnae San Diego Chapter.
2013 "Majoring in the Twenty-first Century," Mills College Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Society and The Cyrus and Susan Mills Society, September.
"Democracy and the Information Order," USC Law School Faculty Workshop (with G Hadfield), February.
2012 "Pedagogical Productivity and the Survival of SLACs in the Age of MOOCs," Mills College Faculty Colloquium, December.
2011 Guest lectures, Mills College. "19th German Social Theory" (for HIST127, Germany and Central Europe); "Power in Organizations" (for GOVT101 "Organizational Theory")
2010 "The 'Six-Hats' Approach to Group Discussion," Mills College.
"Democracy, Courts, and the Information Order" (co-authored with Gillian K. Hadfield) presented at Annual Meetings of the Pacific Sociological Association, Oakland, CA April.
2008 "Democracy, Courts, and the Information Order" (co-authored with Gillian K. Hadfield) presented at Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association, Boston, MA August.
2007 "Notification and the Information Order," Mills College Faculty Works-in-Progress Forum, October.
"Women, Men, and the Information Order," Annual Meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association, Oakland, CA, April.
"Notification and the Information Order," Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA, April.
"Communities as Organizational Junkyards," Organizational Change Study Group at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA, March.
"The Mathematics of Petition Trees," presented to Political Economy and Formal Modeling Working Group at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA, February.
2004 "Getting the Word Out: Notes on the Social Organization of Notification" presented at Mills College Social Science Works in Progress Seminar, Oakland, CA, October.
"Separating the Organizationally Normal from the Politically Pathological in Communities of Organizations" presented at Annual Meetings of the Pacific Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA, April.
2002 "Social Networks" mock lecture for Mills College admissions event.
"Making Methods a Lab Course," Annual Meetings of the Pacific Sociological Association, Vancouver, BC, April.
"'Please take a few minutes… : Using 'Pointless' Internet Petitions to Characterize the Shape of Acquaintance Networks" presented at Annual Meeting of the Pacific Sociological Association, San Francisco, March 2001 and in poster session at Annual Meetings of American Sociological Association, Chicago, IL, August.
2001 "Getting the Word Out: On the Social Organization of Notification," Annual meetings of the Midwest Sociological Association, St. Louis, April.
"Are Chain Letters Completely Useless? Extracting Social Network Information from ‘Pointless’ Internet Petitions," Annual Meetings of the Pacific Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA, March.
2000 "Getting the Word Out: Notes On the Social Organization of Notification," Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association, Washington, D.C., August.
"Temporal Notification Norms: An Application in Formal Sociology," Annual Meetings of the Pacific Sociological Association, San Diego, CA, March.
1999 "Notes on the Social Organization of Notification," "Pre-author meets non-critics" session at the meetings of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, August.
"It’s About Time: Time as a Social Structure in Communities of Organizations," SSSP meetings, Chicago, August.
"Do Kids Today Lack a Work Ethic? Or: Organizational Learning Across Social Networks," Bay Area Public Pool Operators Association, January.
"Some Thoughts on Undergraduate Research," Dallas Area Mills College Alumnae Group, April.
1998 "Access to Information is Neither the Problem nor the Solution," Pacific Sociological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco.
"Urban Communities as Organizational Junkyards," ASA meetings, San Francisco, CA, August.
1997 "Throwing Like a Girl" guest lecture in "Introduction to Sociology" course at Mills College, Oakland, CA, October.
"Everything Here is Political: Communities of Organizations as Settings for Community Initiatives" presented at ASA meetings, Toronto, ON, August.
1996 "New Haven: A Virtual Tour." Invited talk, Yale Law School Reunion, New Haven, CT, October.
"The City Room at ISPS: Efforts toward Bolstering the Local Information Economy." Yale University Department of Statistics.
1989 "Some Notes on the Social Psychology of Combat" (with Daniel F. Chambliss), ASA meetings, San Francisco, CA.
1988 "Big Problems Demand Small Solutions : Towards a General Strategy for Excellence in Education" (with Daniel F. Chambliss), Conference of the New England Educational Research Organization.
1990s Numerous public presentations on computer networks and organizations, urban organizations, and New Haven demographics.
Media
2009 Contributor KALW news "Economic Edge" series.
2007 Tierney, John. 2007. "As the Grapevine Withers, Spam Filters Take Root." New York Times Science Times 22 May 2007.
Other Research
1995 Ethnographic fieldwork for Fighting Back National Evaluation Study, San Antonio, Texas.
1992 The Corporate Citizenship Challenge Project under the direction of N. Tichy and C. Kadushin. Set up qualitative database and wrote section of report on styles of corporate citizenship motivation.
1992 Research assistant to Steven Brint. Content analysis of journal articles for project on the American intellectual elite.
1992 "Student Markets and Admissions Strategies: A Report to the Competitive Markets Subcommittee of the Hamilton College Board of Trustees" an analysis of admissions data written with Daniel F. Chambliss.
1983 IBM Thomas J. Watson Laboratory. Worked on hardware and software for control, data collection, and display for the scanning tunneling electron microscope under Dr. R. Feenstra. American Institute of Physics Summer Industrial Intern Fellowship.
1982-3

B.A. thesis research — development and implementation of a Pascal Compiler for the IBM Series/1 minicomputer.
1981

Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute. Raman spectroscopy of electrochemical breakdown of thin oxide films on iron. NSF URPP.

Technology

  • I am an early adopter and active developer of technology tools in higher education and research.
  • I have coded in languages from assembly to C to Python.
  • Current high level expertise Quantum GIS, Excel, NetLogo. My active toolbox includes Javascript, D3, several different Wiki platforms, Photoshop, Acrobat Pro, SnagIt, Adobe Premiere, Audition, Audacity, Dreamweaver, Google Sketchup, Doceri. Familiarity with R, Leaflet, GIT, iBook author, Flash.
  • I have taught NetLogo, NodeXL, Gephi, Anthropac, UCINET, several GIS applications, SPSS, Pascal, compiler design.
  • I maintain several blogs, websites and wikis.

Employment

Academic/Research/Teaching Positions
2014-2015 Adjunct Professor of Technology and Social Science, Iovine Young Academy for Arts, Technology, and the Business of Innovation, University of Southern California.
1997 Yale School of Management: Geographic Information Systems for Market Analysis (co-taught with Douglas Rae).
1994-97 Founder and Coordinator of The City Room at the Institutional for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University.
1994 Co-organizer of New Haven Regional Data Cooperative
1992-3 Yale University, Part-Time Acting Instructor: Deviance and Social Control, Social Psychology of Organizations.
1990-91 New College of Florida, Visiting Instructor in Sociology: Classical Social Theory, Social Organization, Deviance and Social Control, Phenomenological Sociology, Statistics for the Social Scientists, Monday Night with Nine Women and a Man – Senior Thesis Seminar.
1989 Yale University, Teaching Assistant to Maurice Natanson: Philosophy in Literature.
1985 New College of Florida, Adjunct Instructor, Computer Science: Programming in Pascal, Compiler Design, Assembly Language Programming.
1983 New College of Florida, Undergraduate instructor in computer science: Programming in Pascal.
1979-83 New College of Florida. Teaching Assistant for courses in physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science and sociology.
1995-97 Lectures on “Numbers in Organizations and Cities,” New Haven Department of Police Services and New Haven Police Academy.
1995-97 Introduction to the Internet workshop series for Citizen's for Connecticut's Children and Youth.
1996-97 Workshops in using geographic information systems for social science research offered at Yale Statistical Laboratory.
Consulting
2019-20 Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, University of Toronto.
2013 National Endowment for the Humanities: Member, Review panel for NEH Collaborative Research in Social Sciences Grant Applications.
2012 Loyola Marymount College: Program Review Department of Sociology.
2008-9 Michelle R. Clayman Center Institute for Gender Research. Data visualization for "Dual-Career Academic Couples" project.
2005-8 Mills College. GIS mapping for Office of Admissions, Alumnae Association. Web site development for Curriculum Revision effort. (pro bono)
2003 Gaucher College: Program Review Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
Hamilton College Project on Assessment of Learning in the Liberal Arts.
1999 Cooper Robertson & Partners, Architects. Developing methods of data visualization for Museum of Modern Art renovation project.
1997 Yale Office of University Planning and Cooper Robertson & Partners on campus planning project. Developed methods of visualizing campus activity patterns by combining multiple sources of administrative data with geographic information systems.
Leadership, Education, Athletics in Partnership (LEAP). Organizational climate and effectiveness.
The Waterbury Foundation/ The Counseling Center. GIS mapping.
1995-6 NIDA funded Community Health Care Van Project, providing GIS support and community information.
1996 New Haven Childcare Coalition. GIS mapping and spatial analysis.
“Liaison, Information Exchange, and Consultation Core” component of Yale's Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS proposal.
1995 Dr. Joann Elmore, Yale University Medical School. GIS mapping of breast cancer incidence data.
New Haven Fighting Back. Assisted with planning for local community based self-assessment of program effectiveness.
1994 Collaboration Studio at Yale School of Architecture. Organizational design and analysis.
1989 Hamilton College Board of Trustees Admissions Committee. Data analysis and development of criteria for identifying multiple admissions markets.
Non-academic Work Experience
1/93-8/94 Academic Computing Services, Yale University. Co-founder Humanities Computing Consulting Services.
Developed and implemented user training, communications software, new consulting service, computer solutions to various instructional problems.
9/91-12/93 Yale Computer Center, Statistical Computing Consultant.
6/88-9/88 Software engineer. London, England. Consultant to FXNET project.
Tracked down and repaired software problems that had eluded in-house maintenance staff.
2/87-7/87 Universität Trier, Trier, West Germany.
Taught computer skills to clerical staff in dean's office
9/85-6/87 Synergistic Communications, Inc. Boston/London. System Designer and Programmer on the Foreign Exchange Netting Project.
All phases of project development from high level functional specs to final debugging and ongoing support. Programming in C and VMS layered products on MicroVax IIs.
7/84-1/85 Consultant at Bank of America, London Branch, Marketing Systems Group.
Worked with bank staff to develop, design, test, and implement new database products and dial-up access to financial reports.
9/83-6/84 New College, Sarasota. FL. Admissions Counselor.
Traveled as recruiter and designed and implemented database for applicant tracking.

Grants, Awards, Honors

Grants
2012 Mills College Research Grant for "Mapping the Higher Education Lobby," $1,245
2007 Fulbright German Studies Seminar
2006 Quigley Research Grant, Mills College: "Women, Men, and the Information Order." Course release.
2002 Mills College Faculty Development Grant “Feasibility of Establishing GIS Data Warehouse for Oakland” with Julia McQuoid (Mills undergraduate).
2000 Mills College Irvine Classroom Technology Initiative for the development of online lab materials to accompany methods of social research course. $4,000.
1998 Mills College Course Development Grant for “Geographic Information Systems and Sociological Geography.” $3,500.
1996 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/City of New Haven. “An Inventory of Faith Community Involvement in Substance Abuse Related Programs in New Haven.” $15,000.
1995 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/City of New Haven. “Local Assessment of Substance Abuse Related Data in New Haven.” $16,803.
1994 City University of New York Research Foundation. “Fighting Back in New Haven: Community Study Pilot Project.” $18,566.
1994 Co-author of Yale University’s “Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC)” proposal funded by HUD. $540,000.
Awards and Honors
2017-19 Lorey I. Lokey Chair in Ethics, Mills College
2014-15 Sabbatical Leave
2012-15 Kathryn P. Hannam Professorship in American Studies
2011 Baccalaureate Speaker, Mills College
2010-11 Visiting Scholar, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
2008-11 Robert and Ann Wert Chair, Mills College
2003 "Pearl M" as honorary member of senior class, Mills College.
2000 Sussman Dissertation Prize, Yale University Department of Sociology.
1995 Elm/Ivy Award for contributions to relationship between Yale and New Haven
1994 President’s Public Service Fellowship, Yale University
1993 University Dissertation Fellowship, Yale University
1988 National Science Foundation Three Year Graduate Fellowship
Jacob Javits Fellowship (declined)
1987 Yale University Graduate Fellowship
Sterling Prize Fellowship, Yale University
1983 American Institute of Physics Summer Industrial Intern Fellowship, IBM T. J. Watson Laboratory
1981 National Science Foundation Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
1977 Out-of-State Tuition Scholarship, New College of Florida
National Merit Scholarship

Service

College/University Service
Ongoing Mills College, Interdisciplinary Computer Science Program Committee, Political Legal and Economic Analysis (PLEA) Program Committee
2013 Faculty Executive Committee
2012 Chair, ad hoc Committee on Electronic Course Evaluations; member Campus Budget Committee, Faculty Executive Committee, Course Credit Task Force
2010

Mills College, Presidential Search Committee
Mills College, Chaplain/Director Spiritual Life Search Committee
2009-11

Mills College, Chair Faculty Executive Committee
Assessment Committee
2006-8

Mills College, Department Head, Sociology and Anthropology
2008 Mills College, Sociology Search Committee
Pre-2008 Academic Computing, Undergraduate Research, Faculty Executive, Sociology Search
Association Activity
  • Secretary-Treasurer and Information Officer, American Sociological Association Section on Communication and Information Technology 2011-13
  • Member Committee on Awards, American Sociological Association 2013-15
  • Organizer, "Soon-to-be-Author-Meets-Non-Critics: Leave Your Swords at the Door" Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association, 1995-2015.
  • Discussant, "Sociology of Sport" Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, PA, August 2005.
  • Presider and discussant, "Undergraduate Research Panel," Pacific Sociological Association, Annual Meetings, Portland, OR, April 2005
  • Presider and discussant, "Undergraduate Research Panel," Pacific Sociological Association, Annual Meetings, San Francisco, CA, April 2004
  • Program Committee, Annual Meetings of the Pacific Sociological Association, 2004.
  • Nominations Committee, Culture Section of the American Sociological Association, 2003.
  • Presider and discussant, "Undergraduate Research Panel," Pacific Sociological Association, Annual Meetings, Pasadena, CA, April 2003
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