Call for Applications: Computational Social Sciences Summer School on Conflict › view all

Call for Applications - Learning by Doing

We invite junior researchers to apply for participation in the CSS summer school on data-driven modeling of conflict. Women are especially encouraged to apply!

The CSS summer schools serve as a research incubator aimed at fostering the use of data-driven methods in the social sciences and developing a contribution to the research fields of conflict, migration, and social cohesion. The 2018 summer school focuses on conflict research.

Program

During the summer school, eight teams of five people will work on a specific research project. Each team consists of three junior researchers and two senior experts/supervisors, one with strong methodological expertise in CSS and the other with strong expertise in conflict research. Each team will work through the whole research process with the aim to prepare a manuscript for scientific publication.

Each project combines CSS methods with a research focus on conflict. This may involve the data-driven modelling of the onset, development, or duration of violent or non-violent social conflicts. It may make use of simulations and predictions, or it might focus on the consequences of conflict, for instance its relation to migration and social cohesion. A special focus shall be given to methodological approaches fostering predictive models. We also offer an optional two-day introductory course to R for all those not fa-miliar with the programming language.

Keynote Speakers

• Kristian Skrede Gleditsch | University of Essex, UK
• Nils Weidmann | Unversity of Konstanz, Germany
• Michael D. Ward | Duke University, USA

Projects and Experts

Experts offer the following projects:

1. Between cooperation and conflict. Modeling fine-grained revision changes as social interactions | Fabian Flöck (GESIS Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences, Germany)
2. Values in everyday language and inter-group conflict | Peter Holtz (Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, Germany) & Henrik Dobewall (University of Helsinki, Finland)
3. Socio-ecological tipping points. Quantifying the link between environmental and climate change and conflict | Davide Natalini (Anglia Ruskin University, UK)
4. Simulating the Economic Impacts of Mafia | Luis Gustavo Nardin & Gerd Wagner (both Brandenburg University of Technology, Germany)
5. The role of homophily in the emergence of social norms within social networks | Fariba Karimi (GESIS Leibniz-Insti-tute for the Social Sciences, Germany)
6. Analyzing conflict dynamics at the event level | Sebastian Schutte & Karsten Donnay (both University of Konstanz, Germany)
7. The timing and execution of terrorist attacks | Adam Robert Pah (Northwestern University, USA)
8. In addition, applicants have the opportunity to propose their own project idea.

Further experts

• Nicolas Payette (Laboratory for Agent-Based Social Simula-tion, Italy)
• James Kitts (University of Massachusetts, USA)
• Bruce Edmonds (Centre for Policy Modelling, UK)
• Cornelius Puschmann (University of Hamburg, Germany)
• Jan Lorenz (BIGSSS, Germany)
• Adalbert Wilhelm (BIGSSS, Germany)

Venue and accommodation

The summer school will take place from 23 July to 3 August 2018 at Jacobs University Bremen (Germany) in a vibrant and international setting.

Accommodation will be provided in shared two-room apartments on campus. We can offer a substantive number of travel grants within the limits regulated by the Volkswagen Foundation. Please indicate in your application whether your travel and accommodation may be funded by another institution.

Program Fee

We charge a small registration fee of 100 Euro and a reduced fee of 50 Euro for fulltime students. The fee is waived for participants from low-income countries.

Application

Please submit the following material in one pdf file by 11 February 2018 via EasyChair:

• A letter describing your motivation for participation (1 page max),
• your CV,
• and, if applicable, a proposal of your project (research question, data, analytical approach, and potential supervisor among our experts).

When applying through Easychair, you will be asked to list at least three projects you would like to participate in by preference.

Contact and More Info

Arline Rave (BIGSSS) Organizational management

Jan Lorenz (BIGSSS) Scientific management

Email: css@bigsss-bremen.de

For more info, please check our CSS website.

You can also download the CSS call for applications.