From 20 June to 1 July, 2022 the Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre will host the Institute in Computational Social Science to be held at the University of Sydney, Australia. The purpose of the Institute is to bring together graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and beginning faculty interested in computational social science. The Institute is for both social scientists (broadly conceived) and data scientists (broadly conceived). This event is organised in partnership with Data61 and it is the first time it will be held in Australia.
At the Sydney location, we have a specific interest and in-house expertise in the following topics, although this is not an exhaustive list:
- climate communication and disaster resilience;
- disinformation and influence operations;
- smart cities and the future of work;
- online safety and digital disengagement;
- digital cultures and creative digital practice.
During the first week, we will follow a largely instructional program which will involve taught workshops (and group exercises) in the morning, reflections and discussion groups based on the material provided by the partner SICCS sites over lunch and in the early afternoon, followed by research talks and introductions to specific areas unique to the University of Sydney and the computational social science community in Australia. The program will include speakers who conduct computational social science research in the industry, government, and other settings not limited to academia.
Topics covered include digital data collection, text as data, digital surveys and field experiments, mass collaboration, and ethics. At the Sydney location, we specifically focus on the following areas of computational social science:
- network analysis;
- text-as-data;
- machine learning;
- agent-based modelling;
- data visualisation.
The second week will be dedicated to developing group-based participant-led research projects with expert input from the conveners. Seed funding will be made available to those teams that advance ideas towards publishable research. There will be ample opportunities for students to discuss their ideas and research with the organizers, other participants, and visiting speakers. As SICSS is committed to open and reproducible research, all materials created by faculty and students for the Institute will be released as open source.
In addition to the Institute’s program, participants will be invited to participate in an Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia workshop: Computational social science in Australia: approaches, capabilities, and opportunities (27-28 June 2022). This two-day satellite workshop brings together emerging and established scholars in the field for a sustained conversation about research, teaching, and practice of computational social science. This workshop will lay the groundwork for a new CSS network and a research hub to support interdisciplinary collaboration and incubate state-of-the-art research projects in this field, contributing to the development of new directions of social science research in Australia.
We invite applications from PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and early career faculty within 5 years of PhD conferral. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and fields of study, especially applicants from groups currently underrepresented in computational social science. SICSS-Sydney aims to select around 25 participants, all of whom are expected to fully attend the entire two-week program.
Application materials should be received by 15 March, 2022. For inquiries, contact sicss.admin@sydney.edu.au