Welcome to my website
I am a professor at the Université de Montréal in the Department of Political Science and an Associate Academic Member of Mila - Quebec AI Institute. My research focuses on data science, AI safety, and the impact of generative AI on political attitudes. I also have an interest in legislative institutions and comparative political development. I am currently Director of the Data analysis undergraduate program in social sciences and humanities at the Université de Montréal and a researcher at IVADO - the Research, Training and Knowledge Mobilization Consortium in Artificial Intelligence.
Disinformation, Polarization, and Text as Data
My most recent work studies political polarization and the spread of misinformation in online societies with the Complex Data Lab. The lab’s goal is to develop methodologies for analyzing these social and political issues by leveraging techniques in large language models, graph mining, as well as unsupervised and supervised learning. Our interdisciplinary research team brings together a group of computer scientists from Mila and political scientists from the Université de Montréal and McGill. You can find out more about these projects here and in my current research section.
Parliamentary Voting Records and Canadian Political Development
On this site, you will find the voting records of all Members of the Canadian House of Commons and Senate who served between 1867-2020. Part of these data were used in my award winning book Lost on Division: Party Unity in the Canadian Parliament and in several other recent publications. I am currently researching the development of political parties and the electoral behaviour of the inhabitants of Lower Canada between 1792 and 1841 by focusing on voting records, parliamentary debates, and historical newspapers. My approach to studying these documents combines data science and machine learning tools.
Graduate Student Recruitment
I am recruiting new MA or PhD students interested in AI safety and the political implications of AI, with a strong background in computational social sciences, to join the Complex Data Lab and become members of Mila for the 2025–2026 academic year. Computer science students with a social science background are especially welcomed. Students will work under my direct supervision in the Deparment of Political Science at Université de Montréal and must have at least B1-level proficiency in French.
Interested candidates should email me their CV and cover letter outlining their interest and qualifications.