Research School in Computational Social Science

THOR BALKHED

The Swedish Interdisciplinary Research School in Computational Social Science provides courses, seminars, and networking opportunities for doctoral students interested in the emerging field of computational social science.

Vast troves of digital data are opening up entirely new possibilities for answering fundamental questions in the social sciences.  Social media, smartphones, online libraries, and other digital devices produce continually updated records of human behaviour at unprecedented scales.  The emerging interdisciplinary field of computational social science uses methods such as predictive modelling, text and image analysis, and network analysis to analyse massive datasets in new and insightful ways.

The next generation of researchers, however, face substantial barriers in taking full advantage of the tools of computational social science.  Most fundamentally, the required knowledge and training often falls outside of traditional doctoral programs.  The primary aim of the Swedish Interdisciplinary Research School in Computational Social Science is to provide doctoral students with the up-to-date knowledge and skills necessary to make the best use of digital data on human behavior.  

The target group is doctoral students enrolled at Swedish higher education institutes, but the research school is also open to international students with an interest in computational social science.  The program activities are intended to complement mandatory coursework at the university where the student is registered.  The program runs in two-year cycles, with new student cohorts admitted every other year.  It includes a core curriculum of 10.5 higher education credits as well as seminars, networking activities, and elective courses. 

The research school is coordinated by the Institute for Analytical Sociology in active collaboration with eight higher education institutions: Linköping University, Uppsala University, Lund University, the University of Gothenburg, Stockholm University, Umeå University, the Stockholm School of Economics, and Chalmers University of Technology. It is funded by a grant from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskåpsradet).

Schedule for the 2023 cohort

  • Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (12 – 22 June 2023).
  • Winter School in Computational Social Science (27 November – 8 December 2023).
  • Summer School in Computational Text Analysis (June 2024).
  • Research School Symposium (November 2024).
     

Become a part of the Research School

A group of  people sitting around table and working with computer.

Applications

The Swedish Interdisciplinary Research School in Computational Social Science is open to doctoral students from any discipline with an interest in computational social science. The target group is doctoral students enrolled at Swedish higher education institutes, but we also accept applications from students in other countries.

The research school is intended to complement mandatory coursework at the university where the student is registered.  The program runs in two-year cycles, with new student cohorts admitted every other year.  It includes a core curriculum of 10.5 higher education credits as well as seminars, networking activities, and elective courses.

Each cohort will enroll around 20 students.  The research school will cover the costs of accommodation and travel within Sweden for program activities.  It will also provide travel allowances for participants from outside of Sweden on a limited basis. 

Part of a keyboard featuring the text
athree23/Pixabay

How to apply

Applicants must fill out the application form and attach the following documents:

  1. A CV.
  2. A short (<600 words) statement of interest.
  3. A letter of support from your doctoral supervisor.

In order to be guaranteed full consideration, all application materials must be submitted by 3 April, 2023.  Applications that are not complete by the deadline may not receive full consideration. We will notify applicants by e-mail within approximately two weeks, and will ask participants to confirm their participation very soon thereafter.

Admissions are now closed.

News and Events

The Summer Institute in Computational Social Science

The Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science bring together doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and junior faculty for two weeks of intensive study and interdisciplinary research.  The Institute for Analytical Sociology will host the only partner location in the Nordic region in 2023.

Admissions are now closed.

More information is available on SICSS webpage

The International Roundtable in Computational Social Science

The International Roundtable on Computational Social Science is a regular speaker series that includes presentations from leading international CSS scholars and has been hosted by the Institute for Analytical Sociology since 2021.  All presentations are open to the public.

The current schedule is available here

The Winter School in Computational Social Science

The Winter School in Computational Social Science offers advanced instruction in the area of computational social science. It builds on the Summer Institute and lays a foundation for further studies in social network analysis, computational text analysis, and computer vision.

Alumni 2023

Contact us

Affiliates

Adel Daoud
Senior Associate Professor, Chalmers University of Technology and Linköping University

Christofer Edling 
Dean and Professor, Lund University

Arne Jönsson
Professor, Linköping University
 
Marco Kuhlmann
Professor, Linköping University

Simon Lindgren 
Professor, Umeå University

Måns Magnusson
Assistant Professor, Uppsala University

Jose Pena
Senior Associate Professor, Linköping University
Nina Tahmasebi
Associate Professor, University of Gothenburg

Andrea Voyer
Associate Professor, Stockholm University

Karl Wennberg 
Professor, Stockholm School of Economics

Organisation