Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing

📄 New Publication 📄 When AI Talks Politics: How reliable is ChatGPT? Co-authored with Daniela Braun, @giucarny.bsky.social and @rosanavarrete.bsky.social Now available Open Access @electoralstudies.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🧵

We have two open professorships at @i2sc.net's SOUNDS project! One in #CompSocSci, one in #PoliSci. #hiring

We are delighted to announce that our #PoliSci study “Party Competition on European Issues in the 2024 EP Elections” (in cooperation with @annreinl.bsky.social from @gesis.org) has received the Mario Caciagli Prize for the best article published in the Italian Journal of Electoral Studies in 2026!

Our latest study shows that gender-related issues have become more prominent, but not in the same way across topics, party families, or periods. The findings highlight the multidimensionality of gender politics and caution against treating it as a single political dimension. Learn more:

📢 New publication out! Mapping party competition on gender-related issues in Europe There has been growing discussion about the politicization of gender in European politics. We wanted to take a broad, systematic look at it. 👇🧵

Spent an hour wondering whether the email was real or an unusually elaborate scam. Turns out it was real: Daniela and I won the 2025 Fritz Thyssen Prize for Social Science Articles 1st prize 🏆 campus.uni-saarland.de/preis-der-fr... The article: shorturl.at/2jowF #shamelessselfpromotion

Join us for the kick-off event of SOUNDS on 2 September from 9:00 in the Innovation Center! www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/up...

Only 3 more weeks left to apply! Please share widely 🙏

Good news for those studying European Elections 😊

We hope the corpus will be useful for research on European elections, party competition, political communication, manifestos and text-as-data. #Euromanifesto #SOUNDS #TextAsData 📚 Data and documentation archived at GESIS: search.gesis.org/research_dat... 💻 Github repo: github.com/giucarny/em24

📢 The Euromanifesto Study 2024 Documents are now available! We collected, checked and systematised electoral programmes and campaign materials from across Europe for the 2024 European Parliament elections. A new resource for studying the 2024 EP campaign 🧵

Congrats to the winners of this year's best paper, best dataset paper, best poster paper, and best Web Agent demo/poster 🎉 #ICWSM2026

And the Test of Time goes to 🥁 "Social Media Participation in an Activist Movement for Racial Equality" by @munmun10.bsky.social, Shagun Jhaver, Benjamin Sugar, and @ingmarweber.de 🥂

This is a fairly large (EUR 29M) initiative at Universität des Saarlandes around using data and computational methods to understand and support societal tranformations. As part of this initiative, *five* professorships will be created. Talk to me about details.

I'm currently at #ICWSM / @icwsm.bsky.social Ping me if you're on the job market as we are/will be hiring for SOUNDS - Societal Observatory Using Novel Data Sources (www.sounds-observatory.org).

Deadline for this great postdoc vacancy is tomorrow 👇 Happy to chat about the position, department and all things Saarland, just send me a DM/ email or find me at #comptext2026

We're #hiring!

New publication: Party manifestos and political representation What is a party manifesto and what role does it play for political representation? How do political scientists use party manifestos in their research to map political representation? Find out: www.elgaronline.com/display/book...

New postdoc vacancy in political science/ CSS at Uni Saarland Please share widely/ consider applying If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a DM or find me at the @comptext.bsky.social conference in a few weeks

The #ActEU book is here! This #PoliSci book explores how trust and legitimacy shape Europe’s representative democracies, introducing the ActEU framework to assess democratic change and polarization. link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

The Societal Observatory Using Novel Data Sources(SOUNDS) initiative is hiring a Postdoc for Computational Social Science. Apply by 24.04.2026 Link: www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/up... SOUNDS: www.sounds-observatory.org @ingmarweber.de @politicsunisaar.bsky.social @saarland-informatics-campus.de

📣Call for Applications‼️ ARTEMIS – African Research Talents Experiencing Mentoring In Science 📅Application Deadline: April 13, 2026. 👓Read all: https://www.mpg.de/26122924/artemis-mentoring-programme ✍️Application: https://www.mpg.de/26133233/MPG_ARTEMIS_2026_call-and-application-documents.pdf

Great news! 💬 Our series of #ActEU Animated Explainers is available on YouTube with SUBTITLES in Italian 🇮🇹, French 🇫🇷, and German 🇩🇪‼️ Follow the animated characters here & learn more about political trust in Europe👉 www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... @unidue.bsky.social @politicsunisaar.bsky.social

The third #ActEU policy brief has arrived!

New publication: Party Competition and Voter Attitudes in German Border Regions Using innovative local VAA data the study shows how party competition and voter preferences on European integration take shape where #EUpolitics meets the local level. Learn more: www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandg...

Abstract submissions close on March 3rd! We are also extending a ✨ call for mentored reviewers ✨ if you advise excellent graduate or postdoctoral researchers you are welcome to recommend them to review for IC2S2 2026. Email IC2S2@uvm.edu to nominate mentored reviewers (or faculty colleagues)

The SOUNDS initiative is hiring for 𝗪𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗲𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻/ 𝗪𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗲𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻/ 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗱-𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝗙𝗼𝗸𝘂𝘀 𝗪𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗳𝘁𝘀𝗸𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗸𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗦 (𝗺/𝘄/𝗱). Link: www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/up... @ingmarweber.de @politicsunisaar.bsky.social

Join us on 5. March for our (German) #PoliSci talk with #UNTWIST: "How political are gender question really?" Sign up here: bit.ly/untwist-gsb

The second #ActEU policy brief is here!

The Societal Observatory Using Novel Data Sources (SOUNDS) project is inviting applications for the following position: 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗱𝗼𝗰 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 (𝗳/𝗺/𝘅) 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 (𝗿𝗲𝗳: 𝗪𝟮𝟴𝟬𝟭) Paygrade: E13 TV-L 100% Duration: 2 years @ingmarweber.de @politicsunisaar.bsky.social @uni-saarland.de

📢Job Offer‼️New Max Planck Research Group on Medical Demography Marcus Ebeling will lead the team starting on 1 July 2026. The research group will be based at the MPIDR in Rostock. Read an interview with Marcus on his future research here: www.demogr.mpg.de/go/rgmd (including link to job) #postdoc

🚨 Join us for the next edition Summer School for Women* in Political Methodology in Mannheim 🚨 7 days of hands-on advanced methods + networking for PhDs, postdocs & early-career researchers. Free of charge (limited travel support). Deadline 1 March 2026: summerschoolwpm.org #methodsky #polisky

#BowlingAlone documented a quiet shift from collective to solitary practices. In Bowling with ChatGPT ( #TheWebConference2026), we study whether a similar shift is unfolding in interactions with conversational AI. arxiv link: arxiv.org/abs/2602.01114

A quick summary of the first #ActEU policy brief:

New paper 🎉 in Oxford Open Climate Change together with Daniele Conversi, @lorenzoposocco.bsky.social @wenjiening.bsky.social and Joan Enguer We look at how nationalism shapes climate action — sometimes enabling it, often constraining it. doi.org/10.1093/oxfc... #Research #PoliticalScience #Climate

Coming soon: Activating European Citizens’ Trust in Times of Crisis and Polarization This #PoliSci book will explore how trust and legitimacy shape Europe’s representative democracies, introducing the #ActEU framework to assess democratic change and polarization.

🌍 Are you new to #icwsm or @journalqd.bsky.social and based in a low- or middle-income country? 🚨 There are only 10 days left to apply to ICWSM/JQD Global Initiative! 🚀 Apply by Jan 15: www.icwsm.org/2026/submit....

New deadline is Jan 23. If you're based in a low- or middle-income country and work on computational social science, particularly using online data, please consider applying.

We're #hiring: This time we're looking for a project lead assistant for our large-scale #compsocsci project SOUNDS!

New Publication out! 🔥 Italy’s right-wing politics has changed dramatically over the past two decades. With @gippone.bsky.social and @leonardo-puleo.bsky.social we started from a basic question: Why has the radical right surged inside Italy’s right coalition? Radicalisation or something different?

🎶“The relationship between voters and parties is a complicated dance, with high potential for misalignment” 🎶 Find out more in this #ActEU blog post 👉 www.foederalist.eu/2025/12/acte... ✍️ @alexhartland.bsky.social, Daniela Braun, Giuseppe Carteny, @rosanavarrete.bsky.social & @annreinl.bsky.social

Jordan D. Klein & Ingmar Weber published a Letter to the Editor in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that opens a conversation on the findings of Chi et al (Measuring global migration flows using online data). https://www.demogr.mpg.de/go/PNAS-Letter-Editor

European parties often miss what voters actually care about. New #ActEU research shows clear gaps between party platforms and voter priorities with consequences for trust and political stability. Read more in our latest #PoliSci blogpost:

2026 tutorial submissions are open! ✔️ Submission deadline: February 2nd, 2026 ✔️Acceptance Notification: February 16th, 2026 View the guidelines here: lnkd.in/eBHVe2tP

2026 abstract submissions are open! ✔️ Submission deadline: March 3rd, 2026 ✔️ Acceptance Notification: April 14th, 2026 View the guidelines here: lnkd.in/eJEXvd8u

Are you an international researcher interested in ethical AI in education? Good news — Prof. Nagashima is hiring another Postdoc (as a Humboldt Fellow) to LaLa Lab! 🎤 Read his interview to see what he looks for in candidates: sic.link/lalalab 📄 Application requirements: sic.link/fellowship

Join us in january for a #PoliSci talk by Dr Anne Jadot: "What drives French voters to the polls?"