Research
I believe that sociology and anthropology are inherently interdisciplinary fields, but this is all the more true for the study of society in the age of the internet. My background in the study and theory of language and discourse, paired with my understanding of LLM interpretability and social media algorithms, has given me a unique perspective on how to approach the study of society in the digital age.
Quantitative
Traditional Statistics
My more recent research has focused on the quantitative analysis of social media, particularly in the context of online misinformation. I have worked on projects that involve building independent graph models of YouTube content networks as a tool for monitoring health misinformation.
I have also worked on developing a tool for semi-automated sociological segmentation, using PCA for feature identification, clustering for unsupervised clustering, and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) for supervised classification. Finally, the tool uses descriptive statistics and LLM calls to generate human-readable descriptions and titles of the identified segments.
LLM Interpretability and Use
I believe that LLMs have provided a powerful new tool, but I also believe that this tool is the product of a complex interplay between technology, society, and culture. I am particularly interested in how these models can be used to improve our understanding of human behavior and decision-making, as well as how they can be used to address some of the most pressing social challenges of our time.
Qualitative
While my qualitative research and interest in theory has remained on the background for the past few years, I have continued to develop my skills in this area.Language and Discourse
Language has been at the centre of most schools of thought since World War II. Meanwhile, for the first time in human history, we have evidence of a complete model of language. While this discovery is still only studied by ML interpretability experts, I believe that there is a lot to be gained from applying the insights of theories of language and discourse to the study of LLMs.Education and Teaching
Prepared and taught introductory seminars to data science for Business department students with focus on data mining using scikit-learn.
Provided academic support in various social sciences (Politics, International Relations, Economics etc.) for foreign students in UK universities.
Taught History following the International Baccalaureate program.
I focused on honing my textual analysis abilities, while extending my anthropological studies into the study of religious identity in media and social discourses. My dissertation explored the interaction of various state, church, and media reactions towards the 2019 visit of pope Francis to Sofia, Bulgaria.
I received a first class honours degree in Anthropology, with a focus on the anthropology of religion and the anthropology of media. My dissertation was an ethnography of the interplay between bodily, discoursive, and ascetic practices of Athonite monks and received the David Brooks Prize for the best undergraduate dissertation in Anthropology. I also had extensive interest in critical theory, including the works of Foucault, Bourdieu, and Said.
In my secondary education, I received a classical education in Ancient Greek, Latin, and Old Church Slavonic, as well as a strong foundation in the humanities, including history, philosophy, and literature.
Publications
- forthcoming — Introdution to Data Mining with Python, Technical University, Sofia, Bulgaria
- 2022 — “Building Independent Models of YouTube Content Networks as a Tool for Monitoring Health Misinformation” , in: Proc. XXXI International Scientific Conference Electronics - ET2022, September 13–15, 2022, Sozopol, Bulgaria.
- 2022 — “Adapting the Teaching of Academic Writing to the Emergence of Natural Language Generators” , in: International Conference on High Technology for Sustainable Development – HiTech2022, 6–7 October, Sofia, Bulgaria.
- 2019 — “Bridging Social Anthropology and Theology: An Ethnography of Athonite Monasticism”, in: IOTA Inaugural Conference: Pan-Orthodox Unity and Conciliarity., 9–12 January, Iasi, Romania.
- 2019 — “Aspekti na monasheskata molitva: antropologichno prouchvane na edin atonski manastir”, in: Peev, D. et al. (eds) Zografski sabornik: Zografskiyat arhiv i biblitoteka. Izsledvaniya i perspektivi. Mt. Athos: Zographou Monastery, pp. 698–711 [‘Aspects of Monastic Prayer: Ethnography of an Athonite monastery‘].
