Ahrabhi Kathirgamalingam

#DataMethods #OpenScience

#GESISMethodsHub: An open portal for computational social science research—find tools, tutorials, and code, directly usable in your browser. Methods Hub makes it easy to learn, apply, and reproduce computational methods in the Social Sciences.

methodshub.gesis.org/

Als nicht-weiße Person in Deutschland sind die rassistischen „Stadtbild“ Ausführungen des Bundeskanzlers unerträglich. Schlimmer ist aber, gelernt zu haben, dass SPD und Grüne nicht für meine Rechte einstehen werden. Minderheitenrechte sind verhandelbar geworden. Angeblich elitär und „linksgrün“

2/2 And I am excited to announce that we are hiring a PostDoc and a PhD student to work with us on these topics.

Group description: www.weizenbaum-institut.de/en/research/...

PhD position: www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/...

PostDoc position: www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/...

⌛ Reminder: Submit your contribution to the Special Issue "Inclusive by Design? Participatory Governance and the Future of Digital Public Spaces" by October 15.

ℹ️ policyreview.info/events/call-...

#CAISdigitalfutures2025

Today I discussed academic freedom (and the role of research infrastructure). Thanks to the team at @cais-research.bsky.social for hosting this event!

There is one week left to apply to join us at Rutgers! We're hiring an Assistant Professor in Computational Sociology as part of a cluster of new hires in data science and AI.

Applications are due next Wednesday, 10/15.

What are threats to academic freedom, and what can we do to strengthen it?

We will explore these questions with Ina Brandes (NRW), @kwelle.bsky.social (GESIS), Manfred Bayer (TU Dortmund), and Tim Majchrzak (CAIS) at the panel that I am hosting this Friday 🙌

Tariq Choucair on stage.

My great colleague @tariqchoucair.bsky.social doing the @qutdmrc.bsky.social proud at his alma mater UFMG today.

Trump offers universities a choice: Comply for preferential funding Who needs peer review? Plan offers easier grants to schools that agree to limits.

In order to receive federal funds, Trump has set out numerous requirements, many of them contradictory, including a demand that universities refrain from allowing 'speech relating to societal and political events.' arstechnica.com/science/2025...

🚨 New publication out @jeppjournal.bsky.social w/ Katrin Praprotnik @luanarusso.bsky.social @markuswagner.bsky.social

We show that coalition signals from the mainstream right to the radical right shift, rather than reduce, existing political divisions.

Open-access article: doi.org/10.1080/1350...

Can we use automated approaches to measure the quality of online political discussion? How to (not) measure interactivity, diversity, rationality, and incivility in online comments to the news This article explores the (in)ability of automated tools to measure the deliberative quality of online user comments along the standards set out by Habermas: interactivity, diversity, rationality, ...

Our project on comparing rule-based, classical machine learning, transformers and #LLM to measure debate quality on social media is finally out at Communication Methods and Measures! ✨✨✨

@ascor.bsky.social @nunetsi.bsky.social

Link here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Last week, I defended my dissertation! 🎉

A big thank you to everyone who made this possible—especially (but not exclusively) @anniewald.bsky.social, @nicolarighetti.bsky.social & the whole @compcommlab.bsky.social! 🫶

The Role of Choice Architecture in Mitigating News Avoidance News avoidance has become more common and is associated with negative democratic outcomes. However, only a handful of studies have explored solutions to reduce news avoidance, with nudges offering ...

🚫📰 Can we use nudges to mitigate news avoidance?
Yes and no — it depends on what nudges we use!
Together with @hajoboo.bsky.social & @solecheler.bsky.social I wanted to test whether nudges can reduce news avoidance as limited news consumption—and to do so beyond established Western democracies. 🧵👇

The Free Speech Crisis for Black Americans Is Worse Than You Think Don’t let Jimmy Kimmel’s return fool you: Black academics are more frightened of talking to the press than I’ve ever seen.

Since Charlie Kirk’s assassination, HBCUs received terroristic threats. Black students have been expelled or forced to withdraw. Black professors and teachers have been fired and placed on leave. A Black firefighter was placed on leave. A Black journalist was fired

thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/26/f...

Absolutely looking forward to having Laura Vodden from @qutdmrc.bsky.social at CAIS next week 🙌

The threat of analytic flexibility in using large language models to simulate human data: A call to attention Social scientists are now using large language models to create "silicon samples" - synthetic datasets intended to stand in for human respondents, aimed at revolutionising human subjects research. How...

Can large language models stand in for human participants?
Many social scientists seem to think so, and are already using "silicon samples" in research.

One problem: depending on the analytic decisions made, you can basically get these samples to show any effect you want.

THREAD 🧵

Foto von Marco Wähner und Johannes Breuer, die an einem Tisch sitzen und in die Kamera blicken. Auf der Grafik steht der Text: "Im Interview: Marco Wähner & Johannes Breuer über Research Data & Methods am CAIS".

Im Interview erklären Johannes Breuer und Marco Wähner, wie das #TeamRDM Forschende unterstützt, digitale Daten nutzt, Methodeninnovationen vorantreibt & Transparenz sowie Vertrauen in der Forschung stärken möchte.
👉 www.cais-research.de/news/intervi...
@marco-waehner.bsky.social @johannesbreuer.com

Now out in @cpsjournal.bsky.social. In our new article, @denis-cohen.bsky.social @thmskrr.bsky.social and I show that where local rent prices increase more, residents with lower incomes become more likely to support the radical right AfD.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

ORF FRAGT - Die große ORF-Umfrage 2025

Wir haben an den österreichischen Universitäten ausgezeichnete Panel-Befragungen dazu, wie Österreich lebt, denkt und fühlt – alles in Datenarchiven frei zugänglich. Dafür braucht es keine Website-Umfrage im #Boulevardstyle. Mag mir das jemand erklären? Rausgeschmissenes Geld.

Portrait of Johannes Breuer + Text "Prof. Dr. Johannes Breuer, New Professor & Head of the Team Research Data & Methods at CAIS"

🎉 As of today, September 1, 2025, Prof. Dr. Johannes Breuer heads the "Research Data & Methods" team at CAIS. Together with the University of Duisburg-Essen, he has been appointed Professor of Digital Social Sciences. 🎉
🔗 www.cais-research.de/en/news/joha...
@johannesbreuer.com @unidue.bsky.social

📢 New Preprint: "Don’t Look Up: Evaluating the Tradeoff between Performance and Sustainability of LLMs for Text Analysis."

Providing guidance for social scientists, we challenge the "bigger is better" narrative, instead encouraging social and environmental responsibility.

osf.io/preprints/so...

Who is really fueling your #AI? 🤔 It's not just code & algorithms. Behind every LLM are millions of people, often in invisible roles. Join us, @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social, @milamiceli.bsky.social @superrrnetwork.bsky.social & on Sept. 17 to hear directly from data workers!
🔗 buff.ly/2ug32Bx

In beautiful Thessaloniki to talk about salience and patterns of racist language in German news media (yeah… 🥳) at #ecpr25

Catch the last chapter of my PhD work in this exciting panel put together by @stefaniewalter.bsky.social on Thursday, 3.45pm

Congrats, Johannes! Very much looking forward to having you here at CAIS! 🥳

I guess I can make it official now: On September 1st, I will start a new position as professor of "Digital Social Science" @unidue.bsky.social ( @ifp-ude.bsky.social ) and leader of the team "Research Data & Methods" at @cais-research.bsky.social ! I am looking forward to many exciting new projects!

For people with darker skin, that means even less accuracy, delayed treatment, and a higher risk of deadly outcomes.

Read the full story here: civio.es/sanidad/2025...

@civio.es's recent investigation reveals the case of #QuantusSkin, an AI system for early #skincancer detection. The Basque Health Service plans to roll it out in 2025, promising faster diagnoses. But it misses nearly 1 in 3 melanoma cases, and was trained almost entirely on images of white patients

Very excited to be at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies @cais-research.bsky.social this week to talk about bias in CSS.

Thanks to @ahrabhikat.bsky.social for hosting us 👩‍💻.

I had a great time at @cais-research.bsky.social, everyone was so welcoming, and it was a pleasure to visit and work on this incredibly important and inspiring paper with @ahrabhikat.bsky.social, @aytalina.bsky.social, and @valeriehase.bsky.social !

It was a truly precious experience to talk and write about social bias in CSS in a safe and inclusive space @cais-research.bsky.social generously provided 🙏
Grateful to these badass scholars @ahrabhikat.bsky.social, @janabernhard.bsky.social, and @valeriehase.bsky.social for the amazing collab 🙌