People
Faculty
Karsten Donnay
Karsten Donnay is Assistant Professor of Computational Social Science in the Department of Politics and Public Administration of the University of Konstanz. He is the designated lecturer for the SEDS data science master degree and a member of the Konstanz Center for Data and Methods. His current research examines political behavior on digital media and how this affects societal decision-making using tools from the field of computational social science. He also works on a range of methodological questions related to digital trace data and the use of novel highly-resolved spatiotemporal data in the social sciences.
Carsten Schwemmer
Carsten Schwemmer is senior research associate at University of Princeton, Center for Information Technology Policy. His work focuses on the application of computational methods for social science research. He is particularly interested in the study of ethnic minorities, social media communication, natural language and image processing as well as software development. He co-organized a partner site for the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science in Bamberg and taught courses on methods of political sociology and computational social science at University of Bamberg, University of Konstanz and Humboldt University of Berlin.
Peter Selb
Peter Selb is professor of survey research at the University of Konstanz, Germany, where he directs the interdisciplinary Master's program in Social and Economic Data Science (SEDS). Prior to this position, he was coordinator of the Swiss National Election Study at the University of Zurich and assistant professor of research methodology in Konstanz. His research covers topics in political behavior and public opinion. He regularly teaches classes in survey methodology, causal inference, and statistical modeling.
Susumu Shikano
Susumu Shikano is Professor of Political Methodology at University of Konstanz. He is doing research on spatial models of politics and diverse topics in political behavior. Before coming to Konstanz, he was professor ad interim at the University of Potsdam (2008) and assistant professor at the University of Mannheim (2001-2008). He received a Dr. phil (2001) and venia legendi (2007) for political science from the University of Mannheim. Since 2012 he has been the instructor of the courses ‘Bayesian statistics’ at the ECPR Summer/Winter School in Methods and Techniques. In 2020, he will teach ‘maximum likelihood estimation’ at the Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis.Speakers
Annelies Blom
Annelies G. Blom is Full Research Professor for Data Science at the School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, Germany. She is Head of the German Internet Panel (GIP) at the Collaborative Research Center 884 'Political Economy of Reforms' and project leader of several methodological research projects funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Previously, Prof. Blom was an Assistant Professor at the University of Mannheim, set up her own consulting business (Survex - Survey Methods Consulting), was the Head of Unit Survey Methods at the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), a doctoral researcher at the European Social Survey (ESS), and a researcher at the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), London. She studied in degree programs at University College Utrecht (B.A.), the Conservatory Utrecht, the University of Oxford (M.Phil.), the University of Essex (Ph.D.), and the University of Leuven. Her research concentrates on survey data collection processes, associated errors, and error correction, as well as various applications of artificial intelligence to the collection of social scientific data, such as voice data collection, data fusion, and predictive analytics for attrition processes.
Andreas Jungherr
Andreas Jungherr is a Juniorprofessor (Assistant Professor) for Social Science Data Collection and Analysis at the University of Konstanz. He studies the impact of digital media on politics and society. He has worked on the uses of digital media and technology by publics, political actors, and organizations in international comparison. He also addresses challenges for scientific research in reaction to digital change in order to realize opportunities emerging from new data sources and analytical approaches. In this, he has focused on harnessing the potential of digital methods and computational social science while addressing methodological challenges in its integration into the social sciences. Depending on the object under study, he also uses traditional quantitative and qualitative empirical approaches. Currently, he is lead investigator of 'Communicative Power in Hybrid Media Systems', a project financed by the Volkswagen Stiftung (2017-2020). The interdisciplinary project, featuring computer and information scientists, focuses on the interconnection between political coverage in legacy, online media, and political talk on online platforms in Germany, UK, USA, and South Korea.
Philipp Kling
Philipp Kling is a PhD Student of Computational Social Science in the Graduate School of Decision Sciences of the University of Konstanz. He received both his BA (Major in Sociology, Minor in Statistics) and his MSc (Social and Economic Data Analysis) from the University of Konstanz. In his dissertation, he analyzes social media users' consumption awareness. In particular, he focuses on the accuracy of Twitter users' statements about their online activity and the political heterogeneity of their Twitter network. Further, he analyzes the normative perceptions of biased news diets by utilizing online surveys and experiments in addition to analyses of social media data.
Julian Schuessler
Julian Schuessler is a doctoral student at the Graduate School of Decision Sciences at the University of Konstanz, where he is also affiliated with the Center for Data and Methods. He researches public opinion on European integration as well as methods for causal inference. He is co-recipient of the 2019 Causality in Statistics Education Award of the American Statistical Association.
Nils Weidmann
Nils Weidmann is a Professor of Political Science and head of the 'Communication, Networks and Contention' Research Group. Previously, he held research fellowships at the Centre for the Study of Civil War, Peace Research Institute Oslo (2011-12), the Jackson Institute, Yale University (2010-11), and the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University (2009-10). He received a M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Freiburg (Germany) in 2003, a M.A. in Comparative and International Studies from ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in 2008 and a Ph.D. in Political Science from ETH Zurich in 2009.Teaching Assistants
Rahkakavee Baskaran
Rahkakavee Baskaran is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz. She is particularly interested in comparative politics, as well as empirical and statistical analysis, especially with regard to electoral research. In the past Rahkakavee gained considerable teaching experience in statistic and methods working as a tutor for these subjects.
Philipp Bosch
Philipp Bosch is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Social and Economic Data Science at the University Konstanz. Previously he finished his Bachelor in Politics and Administration at the University Konstanz. Philipp is particularly interested in research concerning political behavior and public opinion with a focus on the formation of radical attitudes. In the past he gained teaching experience in undergrad courses for statistics and empirical research methods.Jana Schwarz
Jana is currently studying an MA in Politics and Public Administration with a specialization in International Administration and Conflict Management at the University of Konstanz. During her bachelor’s degree she developed a growing interest in international relations and global governance issues and wrote her thesis on the impact of immigration on right-wing populist voting behavior and if migration does explain the rise of the AfD in Germany. Apart from that she has gained working experience as a student teacher in statistics and management aswell as vice president of the student’s union.