Dear colleagues,

The Political Studies Association of Ireland Specialist Group in
Computational Methods invites paper submissions for the Annual Conference
of the PSAI, which will be hosted by the University of Galway on 17-19
October 2025:

https://www.psai.ie/conferences/

Our Specialist Group seeks to organise a set of panels (3-5 papers each)
around the application of computational methods (e.g., computational text
analysis, images-as-data, social networks) to the domain of politics.
Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Using images or text to study (political) communication and political
  competition
• Emotion detection in images and text
• Campaigns and social media
• Political rhetoric
• Legislative speech
• Authoritarian politics
• Extremist communication in online spaces
• Multilingual text analysis

The PSAI Annual Conference is a great and informal conference that offers
ample opportunities to network. Participants in our computational methods
panels are sure to receive constructive and useful feedback on their work.
Last year, our Specialist Group hosted six panels featuring 26 papers. We
strongly encourage applications from women, racial and ethnic minorities,
and junior scholars. Limited funding is available for postgraduate students
and early career researchers who are PSAI members. See here for details:
http://www.psai.ie/funding-calls/.

Those interested should submit an abstract to lorcan.mclaren@ucdconnect.ie
by 30 June 2025. This abstract should include:

• Paper title,
• Author name(s) and affiliation(s),
• Professional status (PhD student, postdoc, lecturer, professor,
  independent scholar),
• Abstract of the proposed paper (no more than 200 words).

Please get in touch if you have any questions.

James Cross, University College Dublin
Lorcan McLaren, University College Dublin

Dear colleagues,

McGill University is launching a search for a senior candidate for a Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC). The objective of the CERC program is to bring to Canada top researchers and provide them with substantial long-term funding. Our specific Chair proposal is in the area of “Computational Social Science, AI and Democracy”.  It aims to focus on how digital media — including AI-driven technologies and social media platforms — are reshaping public discourse and engagement as well as democratic accountability. This position will combine the analytical power of data science and algorithmic research with the fields of democratic theory, political science, and public policy.

The scale of funding associated to a successful application is $500k/year for 8 years, including funds for the chair’s salary, research funds, and overhead. Once approved by the funding agency (around January 2027), the Chairholder will be appointed to the Department of Political Science, with potential cross-appointments in the Max Bell School of Public Policy and the School of Computer Science.

More details about the program can be found here through the Workdayhttps://mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/McGill_Careers/job/Leacock-Building/Canada-Excellence-Research-Chair--CERC--in-Computational-Social-Science--AI--and-Democracy_JR0000066958-1 platform; interested candidates can also email me.

All best
Dietlind Stolle
James McGill Professor
Chair Political Science
McGill University