ViDSS International Workshops

ViDSS International Workshops are one- or two-day workshops with international lecturers. The workshops are initiated and organised by students and provide methodological training and international networking opportunities for doctoral candidates in the social sciences. The workshops are a supplement to the course programme and may focus on the presentation of new methodological approaches, hands-on training or the discussion of doctoral candidates’ research projects.

 Summer semester of 2023

“Unleashing the Potential of Geography in Social Sciences: An Introduction to GIS with R.”
International Workshop of the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences, organised by the Empirical Political Science PhD Club

12–14 June 2023

Over the past few years, geography and spatial analysis have become indispensable tools in the social sciences. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have made it possible to visualise and analyse all types of spatial data, ranging from the distribution of social and political variables to the location of historical and political events. This workshop aims at providing students with a strong foundation in geospatial data and its practical applications in social sciences. Participants will learn how to organise and utilise spatial data for analysis in diverse social science contexts, visualise it on maps, and geolocation various social patterns. They will also explore geo-computing distances for research purposes. By the end of the workshop, participants will have the necessary skills to apply their newfound knowledge in their respective fields, enabling them to appreciate the immense potential of geography and spatial analysis in social sciences.

For more information about the programme and registration please see the call for applications. Application deadline: 29 May 2023

Organisers: Jeanne Marlier and Beatriz Lasheras Mas

Fernando de la Cuesta

Postdoctoral research fellow at the University Complutense of Madrid and visiting research fellow at the Department of Government, University of Vienna

Contact
fercuest@ucm.es
linkedin.com


“Supervised and Unsupervised Methods for Automated Content Analysis”
International Workshop of the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences

6–7 July 2023

The availability of text data has exploded in the last two decades. First the availability of text through digital archives, then the advent of digital media communication like online news and press releases and most recently public communication of non-elite actors on social media. For social scientists across disciplines, this opens exciting new possibilities for research as many processes which occurred in private or elite venues is now accessible. At the same time, the sheer amount of data makes manually analysing meaningful fractions of it impossible.

This workshop is for intermediate users who want to deepen their knowledge on available methods and software for automated content analysis. However, the first part contains a revision of fundamentals of automated content analysis while the expectation is that you are comfortable with R, the programming language used in this course.

The workshop will touch upon Text Scaling and Regression Methods, Supervised Classification, Word Embeddings and Deep Learning.

For more information about the programme and registration please see the call for applications. Application deadline: 9 June 2023

Organisers: Paul Balluff and Marvin Stecker

Johannes Gruber

Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Communication Science at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Contact
J.B.Gruber@vu.nl
johannesbgruber.eu


Are you interested in organising a ViDSS International Workshop?

The ViDSS supports students in organising ViDSS International Workshops by providing financial support to invite lecturers, by offering help in finding suitable seminar rooms at the University of Vienna and by providing advice during the organisation process.

The organisation of and participation in ViDSS International Workshops can be recognised as achievements relevant to the curriculum of the doctoral programme in Social Sciences (participation: 2 ECTS credits, organisation: 3 ECTS credits).

If you want to submit an application for a ViDSS International Workshop, please send the following information in one single PDF file to the ViDSS administration team (email to eva.koessner@univie.ac.at):

  • Title of the workshop
  • Short abstract
  • Preliminary programme
  • Suggested date
  • Department/s where the workshop will be held
  • Names of the doctoral candidates who organise the workshop: ViDSS International Workshops should be jointly organised by two or three doctoral candidates.
  • Names of at least five doctoral candidates who would be interested in participating in the workshop
  • Budget plan including estimated travel and accommodation expenses and fees for lecturers
  • CV of the visiting scholar/s

The ViDSS recommends that doctoral candidates ask their supervisors or another senior Faculty member at the University of Vienna to support the initiative and to offer advice during the organisation process.

The ViDSS steering committee discusses applications during their regular meetings and decides on their funding. Doctoral candidates can apply for a maximum amount of € 2,000 per workshop for travel and accommodation costs, fees for lecturers, and food and drinks.

ViDSS International workshops should ideally be open to all doctoral candidates in the social sciences at the University of Vienna and should, therefore, be held in English. We recommend that organisers limit the number of participants and announce the criteria for the selection of candidates well in advance of the workshop. To apply for funding, doctoral candidates must be members of the ViDSS.

Please note that applications have to be submitted in English.

If you are looking for additional support in organising ViDSS International Workshops, you can also contact the Representation of PhD students in the Social Sciences.


Past ViDSS International Workshops


“Experimenting with Digital Methods in Qualitative Research”

International Workshop of the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences, Department of Science and Technology Studies
10–11 November 2022
Visiting scholars: Tommaso Venturini (Medi@lab of the University of Geneva), Kari De Pryck (University of Grenoble Alpes)
Organisers: Pouya Sepehr and Virdzhiniia Vargolskaia
Missed the workshop? Read the blog post Nothing if not critical: Exploring digital methods beyond qualitative and quantitative approaches!

“The applications of power analysis in the social sciences”
International Workshop of the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences, Department of Communication
4–5 May 2022
Visiting scholar: Niklas Johannes (Adolescent Well-Being in the Digital Age programme at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford)
Organisers: Anna Lia Brunetti, Teresa Weikmann and Selina Noetzel
Missed the workshop? Download the materials (slides and exercises)!

“Mobile experience sampling”
International Workshop of the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences,
Department of Communication
10–11 June 2021
Visiting Scholar: Lukas P. Otto (Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam)
Organiser: Manina Mestas

“What can ethnography really do?”
13th ethnodoks* workshop for PhDs & International Workshop of the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

4–6 June 2021
Visiting Scholars: Tanja Ahlin (University of Amsterdam), Isabelle Clair (Institut de recherche interdisciplinaire sur les enjeux sociaux, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris), Mirco Göpfert (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main), Kristine Krause (University of Amsterdam)
Organisers: Marlene Persch, Catherine Polishchuk and Milo Strauss​