Research Process Feed

Research Process Documentation

Chronological documentation of methodological discoveries, validation processes, and analytical insights from the computational ethnography of CUNY's digital campus communities.

October 2025

Computational Snowball Sampling as Methodological Parallel to Interview-Based Network Discovery

The universal scraper’s user discovery architecture (scripts/universal_reddit_scraper.py) implements snowball sampling parallel to qualitative interview methodology. Phase 1 user discovery (lines 283-336) extracts usernames from recent submissions, top posts, and controversial content to establish seed participants. Phase 1.2 network expansion (lines 338-391) performs iterative referral chain discovery: expand_user_network() examines each user’s...
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Pre-Pandemic Baseline Reveals Enduring Structural Failures in CUNY Digital Communities

Analysis of CUNY Reddit discourse from 2011-2013 surfaces patterns of institutional failure that predate COVID-19 by nearly a decade, transforming pandemic disruption narratives into acceleration of existing crises rather than novel emergence. Five dominant themes crystallize from the earliest digital traces: The 41 posts documenting isolation and social disconnection establish...
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Chapter 1 Empirical Validation Transforms Outline from Framework to Evidence-Anchored Foundation

Empirical validation of Chapter 1’s intensification claims through five targeted queries transforms abstract dissertation framework into evidence-anchored foundation, revealing how pandemic conditions amplified rather than created vernacular infrastructure that students had already constructed within institutional voids. Pre-pandemic temporal baseline analysis surfaces critical discovery that 11% of 2018-2019 posts occurred midnight-6am...
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September 2025

Parenting Discourse Absence Exposes Structural Inequality in Campus Support Systems

Comparative analysis of parenting and childcare discourse across CUNY, NYU, and Columbia databases reveals asymmetry in institutional support that manifests through what remains systematically unspoken. The 815 CUNY submissions mentioning parenting terms represent only 2.6% of total discourse despite CUNY serving predominantly non-traditional students. College of Staten Island emerges as...
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August 2025

Infrastructure Decay Documentation Reveals Material Manifestations of Public Disinvestment

Query for infrastructure-related discourse across eight CUNY databases surfaces 500+ instances of facility failures, validating Brier and Fabricant’s (2016) thesis that only 8% of CUNY buildings remain in good repair. Evidence concentrates around facility categories with measurable impact: elevator failures in comment_iphki91 where Baruch student reports “one was working out...
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AI Discourse Reveals Vernacular Pedagogy Emerging from Institutional Support Voids

Analysis of artificial intelligence discourse across CUNY databases (May 2023-January 2025) reveals how students navigate learning technologies within institutional voids, showing not simple adoption patterns but ethical negotiations and collective norm creation mirroring pandemic-era peer support networks. submission_t3_1l5mni6 (66 upvotes) exemplifies mature usage where an Anatomy student uses ChatGPT for...
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Compound Crisis Discussion Typology Establishes Framework for Multi-Topic Discourse Analysis

The investigation into typical compound crisis discussions reveals patterns of interconnected institutional barrier navigation that transcend simple topic co-occurrence, establishing foundation for the 679% increase in multi-topic discourse documented in the baseline intensification analysis. The most prevalent compound pattern emerges as financial aid + housing combinations where students describe tuition...
Read full entry →

July 2025

Evidence Reconciliation Phase Reveals Cross-Chapter Redundancy and Strategic Allocation Framework

Audit of evidence distribution across three dissertation chapters surfaces organizational challenges requiring explicit allocation philosophy to maintain scholarly rigor. The discovery that submission_1akbu5y documenting advisor registration error with 631 upvotes appears in all three chapters exemplifies how high-impact evidence naturally migrates across analytical boundaries—serving as institutional failure example in Chapter...
Read full entry →

Chapter 2 Expansion Transforms Computational Framework into Evidence-Anchored Statistical Narrative

Second phase of organizational revision advances Chapter 2 from skeletal outline at 9% completion toward substantive computational analysis at 37.9%, adding 1,516 words through strategic integration of validated statistics with human testimony. Expansion of Section 2.1.1 on user-centric scraping innovation positions the 14-year corpus of 545,895 posts (273,702 CUNY plus...
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June 2025

Transit Evidence Validation Identifies Citation Mismatches

Validation of Chapter 3, Section 3.6 transit evidence found numerical discrepancies. Claimed “Queens to Manhattan” (487 times) and “Hunter to Queens” (312 times) were unsupported (actual: 0 and 5 exact matches), requiring revision to thematic co-occurrence: “queens” appears 1,897 times and “manhattan” 361 times in transit discourse, with major routes...
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Linguistic Analysis Reveals Class-Based Differences in Navigational Framing

Validation of Chapter 1, Section 1.3 evidence found the claimed “won’t be able to” marker at 1.60x CUNY vs Columbia (not 13.63x as initially reported). Expanded analysis of barrier and tactical phrases showed CUNY discourse has 1.68x higher barrier language (“have to go in person,” “cannot enroll,” “too late to,”...
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January 2025

Infrastructure Decay Documentation Reveals Material Manifestations of Public Disinvestment

Query for infrastructure-related discourse across eight CUNY databases surfaces 500+ instances of facility failures, validating Brier and Fabricant’s (2016) thesis that only 8% of CUNY buildings remain in good repair. Evidence concentrates around facility categories with measurable impact: elevator failures in comment_iphki91 where Baruch student reports “one was working out...
Read full entry →

AI Discourse Reveals Vernacular Pedagogy Emerging from Institutional Support Voids

Analysis of artificial intelligence discourse across CUNY databases (May 2023-January 2025) reveals how students navigate learning technologies within institutional voids, showing not simple adoption patterns but ethical negotiations and collective norm creation mirroring pandemic-era peer support networks. submission_t3_1l5mni6 (66 upvotes) exemplifies mature usage where an Anatomy student uses ChatGPT for...
Read full entry →

Compound Crisis Discussion Typology Establishes Framework for Multi-Topic Discourse Analysis

The investigation into typical compound crisis discussions reveals patterns of interconnected institutional barrier navigation that transcend simple topic co-occurrence, establishing foundation for the 679% increase in multi-topic discourse documented in the baseline intensification analysis. The most prevalent compound pattern emerges as financial aid + housing combinations where students describe tuition...
Read full entry →

Evidence Reconciliation Phase Reveals Cross-Chapter Redundancy and Strategic Allocation Framework

Audit of evidence distribution across three dissertation chapters surfaces organizational challenges requiring explicit allocation philosophy to maintain scholarly rigor. The discovery that submission_1akbu5y documenting advisor registration error with 631 upvotes appears in all three chapters exemplifies how high-impact evidence naturally migrates across analytical boundaries—serving as institutional failure example in Chapter...
Read full entry →

Chapter 2 Expansion Transforms Computational Framework into Evidence-Anchored Statistical Narrative

Second phase of organizational revision advances Chapter 2 from skeletal outline at 9% completion toward substantive computational analysis at 37.9%, adding 1,516 words through strategic integration of validated statistics with human testimony. Expansion of Section 2.1.1 on user-centric scraping innovation positions the 14-year corpus of 545,895 posts (273,702 CUNY plus...
Read full entry →

Transit Evidence Validation Identifies Citation Mismatches

Validation of Chapter 3, Section 3.6 transit evidence found numerical discrepancies. Claimed “Queens to Manhattan” (487 times) and “Hunter to Queens” (312 times) were unsupported (actual: 0 and 5 exact matches), requiring revision to thematic co-occurrence: “queens” appears 1,897 times and “manhattan” 361 times in transit discourse, with major routes...
Read full entry →

Linguistic Analysis Reveals Class-Based Differences in Navigational Framing

Validation of Chapter 1, Section 1.3 evidence found the claimed “won’t be able to” marker at 1.60x CUNY vs Columbia (not 13.63x as initially reported). Expanded analysis of barrier and tactical phrases showed CUNY discourse has 1.68x higher barrier language (“have to go in person,” “cannot enroll,” “too late to,”...
Read full entry →