EXPERIENCE⌗

University of Groningen⌗

PhD Candidate – Sociology | November 2022 – Present | Groningen, Netherlands

Exploring how identities, social network structures, and platform mechanics shape cooperation & conflict in online communities. Focus on Habermasian deliberation & civil disagreement in toxic political spaces.

Key Contributions:

  • Conducted empirical analysis in R and developed agent-based models (ABMs) in Python to understand toxicity and constructive disagreement in political forums
  • Simulated how platform design shapes online discourse
  • Digital Methods: Python, NetLogo, RSiena (social network analysis), NLP (spaCy, NLTK), web scraping, and API data collection

Research Stay: Embedded in the AICS at the ILLC, working with Petter Törnberg on agent-based modelling of platform mechanics and constructive disagreement in online political forums. Developing foundational architecture for dissertation’s simulation study.

Teaching & Supervision:

  • Lecturer and teaching assistant in agent-based modelling and computational social science
  • Supervised student projects on platform governance, digital governance, and the critical development of large language models (in collaboration with CBS)

Academic Service:

  • Former secretary of Norms at Networks research cluster (organized weekly seminars & presentations)
  • Current managing editor of Rationality and Society (first point of contact for manuscript submissions; organize quarterly issues)

Utrecht University⌗

Junior Researcher in Entrepreneurship | October 2021 – October 2022 | Utrecht, Netherlands

  • Designed web scraping pipelines (Python) and analysed social and economic data for research on household innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems
  • Conducted mixed-methods research (interviews + data analysis) on household innovation in South Africa
  • Contributed to social media strategy for Utrecht School of Economics (grew following to 1000+ in under a year)
  • Organized the first ever Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Winter School

EARLY CAREER EXPERIENCE⌗

SEO Analyst | Cheadle Thompson & Haysom Attorneys | Johannesburg, South Africa | Jul – Aug 2019

  • Used platform metrics and digital trace analysis of website visitors to optimize engagement

Web Development Intern | Liquid Thought | Cape Town, South Africa | Jun – Jul 2017

  • Designed user interfaces (Figma, WordPress) for a professional social media platform

Behavioral Economics Intern | Genesis Analytics | Johannesburg, South Africa | May – Jun 2017

  • Developed behavioral nudges for clients, applicable to studying how platform design shapes user interactions

EDUCATION⌗

Maastricht University⌗

M.Sc. Business Intelligence & Smart Services | Estimated Graduation: August 2021

Thesis: “Demographic Mixing Patterns and Job Acquisition in Professional Social Networks” – Used Python and R to model social network structures and their economic impacts. Supervisor: Leto Peel.

Coursework: BI & database modeling; Data wrangling, processing, and display with R; Machine Learning with R; Data visualization with Tableau

Award: 1st Place, TecAlliance Smart Service Project – Developed Prioritizr, a recommender system for the automotive industry

B.Sc. Economics and Management of Information | August 2020

Thesis: “The Value of an Update: Legacy Systems and Knowledge-Management Performance” – Supervisor: Dr. Anant Joshi

Coursework: Statistical analysis & forecasting; micro-macro economics; information, knowledge, and data management; ERP, DSS & system analysis + design; Spreadsheets & Web Development

Erasmus Exchange: Uppsala University, Sweden – Fall 2019 semester (Organizational Behavior & International Business)

RESEARCH OUTPUTS⌗

Peer Reviewed Publications⌗

  • Cowen, D., Stark, T., Frey, V., & Flache, A. (2026). Trends of Friends – Time dynamics of Surface- and Deep-level traits in friendship formation and maintenance. Social Networks, 84, 180–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2025.10.001

  • de Jong, J. P. J., Mulhuijzen, M., Cowen, D., Onyango, L., & Kraemer-Mbula, E. (2025). Household sector innovation, diffusion failure, and business ownership: Evidence from South Africa. Science and Public Policy, 52(4), 613–629. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scaf009

Policy Reports⌗

Conference Proceedings⌗

Under Review⌗

  • Cowen, D., Frey, V., Stark, T., and Flache, A. Toxicity Comes in Threads: Charting the Course of Inter-Partisan Toxicity in a Popular Political Subreddit (November 13, 2025). Available at SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6334218

  • Cowen, D., Frey, V., Stark, T. Breaking the Downward Spiral in Online Political Discourse: How Constructive Dialogue Can Tame Toxicity. (Under review)

Selected Conference Presentations & Invited Talks⌗

  • 2025, Leveraging High-Performance Computing in Analytical Sociology, Oral Presentation (Invited Speaker), DoesItCompute, Groningen, Netherlands

  • 2025, Toxicity Comes in Threads: Charting the Course of Inter-Partisan Toxicity in a Popular Political Subreddit, Poster Presentation, IC2S2, Norrkoping, Sweden

  • 2024, Who would I like to know? Surface and Deep Level Traits in Friendships, Oral Presentation, Sunbelt, Edinburgh, Scotland

  • 2024, Multiple Imputations for Data in the Dynamic Friendship Process, Oral Presentation (Invited Speaker), Workshop on Agent Based Models of Social Networks 2024, Milan, Italy

Workshops Given⌗

  • 2024, Web Scraping Scientific Co-publishing Networks, Workshop Tutorial (with Jochems Tolsma & Rob Franken), Sunbelt, Edinburgh, Scotland

Peer Review⌗

  • 2025: Reviewer for JASSS (Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation)

TECHNICAL SKILLS & INTERESTS⌗

Digital & Computational Methods: Social media data collection (Reddit API, Twitter API, PushShift), cross-platform digital trace analysis, NLP (spaCy, NLTK, Perspective API), network analysis (RSiena, igraph, NetworkX), agent-based modelling (MESA, NetLogo), DMI tools (4CAT), web scraping, high-performance computing

Statistical Methods: Bayesian beta regression, generalized additive models, multilevel modelling, machine learning

Programming: Python (pandas, NetworkX, spaCy, NLTK, MESA, Streamlit), R (tidyverse, RSiena, igraph, brms), JavaScript (ReactJS), SQL, NetLogo

Visualisation & Dissemination: Matplotlib, Tableau, Streamlit (interactive research tools), Adobe Suite, Figma

Languages: English (fluent), Dutch (A2/B1), Afrikaans (competent)

Interests: Tennis & football, politics, photography, music production