From June 15 to 26, 2026, the Computational Social Science Lab, Data Driven Discovery Initiative, Population Studies Center, Department of Sociology, Department of Political Science, and Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania will host the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science. The purpose of the Summer Institute is to bring together graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty interested in computational social science. The Summer Institute is for both social scientists (broadly conceived) and data scientists (broadly conceived).
The instructional program will involve lectures, tutorials, and participant-led research projects. Topics will include causal inference with observational data, text analysis, network analysis, survey experiments, and machine learning. There will be ample opportunities for students to discuss their ideas and research with the organizers, other participants, and visiting speakers. SICSS-Penn is committed to open and reproducible research; thus, all materials created by faculty and students for the Summer Institute will be released publicly.
Participation is restricted to Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers, and junior faculty (within 7 years of their Ph.D). We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and fields of study, especially junior faculty from neighboring institutions near University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. About 25-30 participants will be invited. Selected participants are expected to fully attend and participate in the entire 9-day program.
Application materials are due on March 6, 2026, at 11:59 pm EST.