SICSS-Lake Como

June 29 to July 12, 2025 | Como, Italy

Schedule & Materials

Sunday June 29, 2025 - Participants arrive
Monday June 30, 2025 - Introduction to SICSS
  • 9:00am

    Participants gather and housekeeping announcements

  • 9:30am

    Introduction to SICSS-Lake Como

  • 10:00am

    Flashtalks by participants I

  • 11:00am

    Coffee Break

  • 11:15am

    Flashtalks by participants II

  • 12:30pm

    Lunch

  • 2:30pm

    SICSS Unconference I

  • 4:00pm

    Coffee Break

  • 4:30pm

    Opening talk: Zhijing Jin, University of Toronto (Causal reasoning with large language models)

Tuesday July 1, 2025 - Simulating humans
  • 9:00am

    Participants gather and housekeeping announcements

  • 9:30am

    Chen Peng, Bocconi University (Replicating conjoint experiments with LLMs)

  • 10:15am

    Lorenzo Lupo, Bocconi University (SimBench: Benchmarking the Ability of Large Language Models to Simulate Human Behaviours)

  • 11:00am

    Coffee Break

  • 11:30am

    Ben Rochford, Duke University (Bot or Not: social identity cues shape the perceived humanity of online profiles)

  • 1:00pm

    Lunch

  • 2:00pm

    Group exercise (B. Rochford, Z. Aghamohammadi)

  • 4:00pm

    Coffee break

  • 4:30pm

    Solutions to group exercise and discussion

  • 5:30pm

    Irene Pasquetto, University of Maryland (What is the future of disinformation research?) (Material 1, Material 2)

Wednesday July 2, 2025 - To Explain and to Predict
  • 9:00am

    Participants gather and housekeeping announcements

  • 9:30am

    Eaman Jahani, University of Maryland Business School (Direct and Indirect Effects of Prosocial Messages on Harmful Content Engagement)

  • 11:00am

    Coffee Break

  • 11:30am

    Chiara Binelli, University of Bologna (Building Better Theories Through Prediction and Explanation)

  • 1:00pm

    Lunch

  • 2:00pm

    Group exercise (C. Binelli, B. Rochford) (Main reference)

  • 4:00pm

    Coffee break

  • 4:30pm

    Solutions to group exercise and discussion

  • 6:00pm

    Como Evenings Lecture by Chris Bail (Bridging Divides with Generative AI)

Thursday July 3, 2025 - Social media and polarization research
  • 9:00am

    Participants gather and housekeeping announcements

  • 9:30am

    Friedolin Merhout, University of Copenhagen (Using Internet Search Data for Comparative Longitudinal Research: The Case of the Radical Right Across Europe)

  • 11:00am

    Coffee Break

  • 11:30am

    Paul Bouchaud, Complex Systems Institute of Paris (Title: TBC)

  • 1:00pm

    Lunch

  • 2:00pm

    Group exercise (P. Bouchaud, Z. Aghamohammadi)

  • 4:00pm

    Coffee break

  • 4:30pm

    Solutions to group exercise and discussion

  • 5:30pm

    Douglas Guilbeault, Stanford University (Title: TBC)

Friday July 4, 2025 - Joint Workshop with European Polarization Observatory
  • 9:00am

    EPO - SICSS Workshop Welcoming Address

  • 9:15am

    EPO Project Welcoming Address

  • 9:30am

    Hiroki Yamashita, EHESS-CNRS (Title: Measuring dimensionality of political space using social media data)

  • 10:00am

    Jonathan Cardoso-Silva, London School of Economics (Title: Latent Network Models in Social Networks)

  • 10:30am

    Marton Karsai, Central European University (Title: Socioeconomic patterns and their dynamics in social networks and language)

  • 11:00am

    Coffee Break

  • 11:30am

    Pedro Ramaciotti, CNRS-Sciences Po (Title: Measuring ideological polarization in social media across countries in comparable political dimensions using political survey data)

  • 12:00pm

    Marvin Pappalettera, Bocconi University (Title: Mapping voters’ preferences with digital trace data and random utility models)

  • 12:30pm

    Philip Darius, Hertie School (Title: Social media success of populist radical right parties in the 2024 European Parliament election)

  • 1:00pm

    Lunch

  • 2:00pm

    Elisa Omodei, Central European University (remotely) (Title: The Public that Engages Invisibly: What Visible Engagement Fails to Capture in Online Political Communication)

  • 2:30pm

    Armin Pournaki, Max Planck Institute (Horizon SoMe4Dem project) (Title: Conflicting narratives and ideological polarization on social media)

  • 3:00pm

    Carlo Santagiustina, Sciences Po, (Horizon SoMe4Dem project) (Title: Issue-based self-identification and participation on social media in the EU)

  • 3:30pm

    Paul Bouchaud, EHESS CNRS Sciences Po (Title: Algorithmic resolution of crowd-sourced moderation on X in polarized settings across countries)

  • 4:00pm

    Vlad Bujdei-Tebeica, SNSPA (Title: Political Speech and Polarization: Tracing the Path from Discourse to Policy in Romania’s 2020-2024 Parliament)

  • 4:30pm

    Gerardo Iñiguez, Tampere University (Title: The social impact of the willingness to share opinions: from online data to controlled experiments)

  • 5:00pm

    Coffee break

  • 5:30pm

    Participants’ research teams form

  • 8:00pm

    Social Dinner

Monday July 7, 2025 - Experiments Workshop
  • 9:00am

    Participants gather and housekeeping announcements

  • 9:30am

    Sonke Ehret, University of Lausanne (Title: Online experiments workshop)

  • 11:00am

    Coffee Break

  • 11:30am

    Group exercise (S. Ehret, B. Rochford)

  • 1:00pm

    Lunch

  • 2:00pm

    SICSS Unconference II

  • 5:30pm

    Dirk Hovy, Bocconi University (Title: TBC)

Tuesday July 8, 2025 - Network Workshop
  • 9:00am

    Participants gather and housekeeping announcements

  • 9:30am

    Beatrice Franzolini, Bocconi University (Decoding Connections: A Hands-on Workshop in Network Data Analysis)

  • 11:00am

    Coffee Break

  • 11:30am

    Group exercise (B. Franzolini, Z. Aghamohammadi)

  • 1:00pm

    Lunch

  • 2:00pm

    Group research work

  • 5:30pm

    Flaminio Squazzoni, Università Statale di Milano (Exploring network dynamics with agent-based models)

Wednesday July 9, 2025 - Text and video as data
  • 9:00am

    Participants gather and housekeeping announcements

  • 9:30am

    Alex Kindel, SciencesPo (Diagnostic methods for language models)

  • 11:00am

    Coffee Break

  • 11:30am

    Germain Gauthier, Bocconi University (The Neural Ideal Point Model)

  • 1:00pm

    Lunch

  • 2:00pm

    Group research work

  • 5:30pm

    Agnes Emoke Horvat, Northwestern University

Thursday July 10, 2025 - Groups ultimate projects and Como FC Workshop
  • 9:00am

    Participants gather and housekeeping announcements

  • 9:30am

    Como FC Sports Analytics (Title: TBC)

  • 11:00am

    Coffee Break

  • 11:30am

    Group research work - Como FC Sports Analytics Team Round table

  • 2:00pm

    Lunch

Friday July 11, 2025 - Research group presentations
  • 9:00am

    Participants gather and housekeeping announcements

  • 10:00am

    Group presentations and discussion - Group I

  • 11:00am

    Group presentations and discussion - Group II

  • 12:00pm

    Group presentations and discussion - Group III

  • 1:00pm

    Lunch

  • 2:00pm

    Group presentations and discussion - Group IV

  • 3:00pm

    Group presentations and discussion - Group V

  • 4:00pm

    Group presentations and discussion - Group VI

Saturday July 12, 2025 - Participants leave

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