professor, painter,
horror film reviewer
legally trained computational social scientist studying how complex data can inform policy, with particular emphasis on the nexus of fear, criminal data, and the law – not Kat Albrecht the pet detective
Download a copy of my curriculum vita here.
Fear &
Computational
Law Lab
I direct the Fear & Computational Law Lab where we use computational social science methods to measure fear and understand how fear becomes entangled with the law
Teaching
I teach classes on fear, criminal justice, and research methods that embody the work of the lab
origins of fear syllabus
research methods syllabus
I am also the North American Director for the Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science (SICSS). We offer free computational social science methods training at universities all around the world – read more at sicss.io
Research Highlight
The lab makes every effort to share work open source and/or provide pre-prints.
In a trio of papers, I lay out my theory of the object-ification of the law, we analyze how the emotional capacity of fear spurs reactionary regulation, and explore new methods of measuring fear.
Read: If I see a Burmese python, I’m gonna kill that shit (pre-print)
Read: fear the law (pre-print)
Read: quantifying fear (under review)
SCALES OKN
The NSF-funded SCALES – OKN (Systematic Content Analysis of Litigation EventS Open Knowledge Network) is focused on building a free and open source AI powered data platform that makes the details of the federal judiciary and insights into how it works available and accessible to every single person.
Learn more at scales-okn.org
Use our federal court data explorer here
Creative Work
horror film reviews
In addition to my academic work on horror films and the construction of fictional fears, I am a Staff Writer for Horror DNA. I review horror films, books, and games with an emphasis on practical special effects, creature features, and low-budget.
Read my reviews here
Review requests: steve.pattee@horrordna.com
art & screenwriting
My current series of paintings focuses on the organizing concept of ‘ordinary horrors’ – those little things like your gums bleeding when you floss or a badly placed paper cut – that seem minor but are horrifying when resolved in paint.
I am currently pursing my MFA in screenwriting at the University of Georgia. My projects generally focus on monster movies with practical special effects
