Organizing team
About us
The Computational Methods Working Group was founded by researchers at the Department of Communication and Media Research, the Department of Political Science and the fög – Research Institute for the Public Sphere and Society/University of Zurich in January 2020.
The group and its events are supported by a grant of the Graduate School at the University of Zurich as well as the Digital Society Initiative.
Bantel, Ivo
Ivo Bantel is a PhD Student at the Department of Political Science (University of Zurich). His research focusses on polarization, political conflict, and computational social science methods.
Gessler, Theresa
Dr. Theresa Gessler ist a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Political Science (University of Zurich). Her research focuses on conflicts around democracy, immigration and patterns of party competition.
Hase, Valerie
Valerie Hase is a research assistant/PhD student at the Department of Communication and Media Research (University of Zurich). Her research interests include conflict and crises communication, terrorism, and text-as-data methods.
Kobilke, Lara
Lara Kobilke is a research assistant/PhD student at the Department of Communication and Media Research (University of Zurich). Her research focuses on political cross-cutting exposure, political communication and social media.
Mahl, Daniela
Mpadanes, Markos
Markos Mpadanes is a research assistant/PhD candidate at the Department of Communication and Media Research (University of Zurich). His research focuses on strategic communication, media and communication management, CxO positioning and thought leadership on social and professional networks, sustainability, social network analysis, and text-as-data methods.
Pfiffner, Nico
Nico Pfiffner is a research assistant/PhD student at the Department of Communication and Media Research (University of Zurich). His research interests include media use and effects, computational social science, and network analysis.
Reiss, Michael
Michael Reiss is a research assistant/PhD student at the Department of Communication and Media Research (University of Zurich). His research interests include news consumption and algorithmic selection in everyday life.
Scurrell, Jennifer
Jennifer Victoria Scurrell is a PhD student at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich. Her research focuses on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on opinion dynamics, the influence of AI agents in online social networks, and visual political communication using experimental and computational social science methods.
Sczepanski, Ronja
Ronja Sczepanski is a PhD student in the European Politics Research Group at ETH Zurich. Her research focusses on identity change, social group cues and stereotypes.
Siegen, Dario
Dario Siegen is a research assistant/PhD student at the Department of Communication and Media Research (University of Zurich). His research interests include political communication, environmental policy and computational social science.
Staender, Anna
Anna Staender is a research assistant/PhD Student at the Department of Communication and Media Research (University of Zurich). Her research focuses on online disinformation, political communication, and social media.
Vogler, Daniel
Daniel Vogler is a research associate at the Department of Communication and Media Research and head of research at fög – Research Institute for the Public Sphere and Society/University of Zurich. His research interests include reputation research, higher education institutions, CSR, crisis communication, and social media.