Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 38, No. 174.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
                      Hosted by DH-Cologne
                       www.dhhumanist.org
                Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org




        Date: 2024-10-03 11:51:53+00:00
        From: rogers@govcom.org
        Subject: Cfp: Digital Methods Winter School - Univ. Amsterdam

Digital Methods Winter School and Data Sprint 2025
Media Studies, University of Amsterdam 6-10 January 2025

Digital Methods Winter School and Data Sprint: Call for Participation

The Digital Methods Initiative (DMI), Amsterdam, is holding its annual
Winter School on 'Chatbots for Internet Research?'. The format is that
of a (social media and web) data sprint, with tutorials as well as
hands-on work for telling stories with data. There is also a programme
of keynote speakers. It is intended for advanced Master's students, PhD
candidates and motivated scholars who would like to work on (and
complete) a digital methods project in an intensive workshop setting.
Chatbots and LLMs for Internet Research? Towards a Reflexive Approach

Positions now are increasingly staked out in the debate concerning the
application of chatbots and LLMs to social and cultural research. On the
one hand there is the question of ‘automating’ methods and shifting some
additional part of the epistemological burden to machines. On the other
there is the rejoinder that chatbots may well be adequate research
buddies, assisting with (among other things) burdensome and repetitive
tasks such as coding and annotating data sets. They seem to be
continually improving, or at least growing in size and apparent promise.
Researcher experiences are now widely reported: chatbots have
outperformed human coders, ‘understanding’ rather nuanced stance-taking
language and correctly labeling it better than average coders. But other
work has found that the LLM labeling also has the tendency to be bland,
given how the filters and safety guardrails (particularly in US-based
chatbots) tend to depoliticise or otherwise soften their responses. As
researcher experience with LLMs becomes more widely reported, there are
user guides and best practices designed to make LLM findings more
robust. Models should be carefully chosen, persona’s should be well
developed, prompting should be conversational and so forth. LLM critique
is also developing apace, with (comparative) audits interrogating
underlying discrimination and bias that are only papered over by
filters. At this year’s Digital Methods Winter School we will explore
these research practices with chatbots and LLMs for internet research,
with an emphasis on bringing them together. How to deploy and critique
chatbots and LLMs at the same time, in a form of reflexive usage?

Applications: Key Dates

There are rolling admissions and applications are now being accepted. To
apply please send a short letter of motivation, your CV, a headshot
photo and a 100-word bio to winterschool [at] digitalmethods [dot] net.
Notifications of acceptance are sent up to 2 weeks after application.
Final deadline for applications is 9 December 2024. The full program and
schedule of the Winter School are available by 19 December 2024.

Tuition Fees

The fee for the Digital Methods Winter School 2024 is EUR 695, and upon
completion all participants receive transcripts and certificates (worth
6 ECTS).
Full call for participation and all additional information is here:
https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WinterSchool2025



_______________________________________________
Unsubscribe at: http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted
List posts to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
List info and archives at at: http://dhhumanist.org
Listmember interface at: http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted/
Subscribe at: http://dhhumanist.org/membership_form.php