The Russell Sage Foundation will sponsor the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science, to be held at Covenant University, Ogun State, Nigeria, from June 19 to June 29, 2022. The Summer Institute will bring together postgraduate students, early-career academics and researchers, as well as junior officers in statistical offices, government ministries, and agencies. The Summer Institute is for computationally minded social scientists and data scientists (broadly conceived).
This partner site is led by Emmanuel Olamijuwon, Fidelia Dake, Evans Osabuohien, and Obindah Gershon. SICSS-Covenant is unique among partner locations in its focus on sustainable development goals. Throughout the duration of the Institute, we will explore how computational methods applied to digital data or traditional data sources can help us to better measure the progress of African countries towards sustainable development goals. In addition, our host- Covenant University, is a growing, dynamic vision-driven University with a compelling vision of raising a new generation of leaders for the African continent. Covenant University has had a rapid rise in nearly two decades of its existence. The university is ranked in the Top 1% of several rankings of higher education. Covenant University is also among the top 10 young universities in Africa in the THE World University Rankings.
The instructional program for the Institute will involve lectures, group problem sets, and participant-led research projects. There will also be outside speakers who conduct computational social science research in a variety of settings, such as academia, industry, and government. Topics covered include text as data, website scraping, digital field experiments, non-probability sampling, mass collaboration, and ethics. There will be ample opportunities for students to discuss their ideas and research with the organizers, teaching assistants, other participants, and visiting speakers. Because we are committed to open and reproducible research, all materials created by faculty and students for the Summer Institute will be released open-source.
Registration for the workshop is free. There is also a limited number of financial assistance to cover participants travel expenses, meals, and accommodation during the Institute. Participation is open to master’s and PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, untenured faculty within five years of their PhD. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, fields of study, and countries within Africa, especially applicants from groups currently under-represented in computational social science. About 20 participants will be invited, and participants are expected to fully attend, participate, and engage in the entire program. Participants with less experience with social science research will be expected to complete additional readings in advance of the Institute. We have received generous support from DataCamp to access over 360 interactive courses through DataCamp for the Classroom. Participants with less coding experience will be supported by teaching assistants to complete a set of courses on the R programming language using this platform before the Institute.
Application materials were due on March 18 March 30, 2022. All accepted applicants have been notified by email. Inquiries may be sent to cepder.sicss@covenantuniversity.edu.ng