In this talk I will discuss the contribution network scientists can make to the study of political polarization. I will discuss some of my recent work including on the polarization of climate politics online, and on how online discussions across countries show a common pattern of affective polarization (i.e., negative attitudes towards partisans’ political out-group). As part of the talk, I will discuss how network scientists fit into the wider study of political polarization across disciplines, and why I believe our community has to make greater efforts to understand the contributions of researchers from non-technical backgrounds.
Research fellowships offer an opportunity for junior researchers to work on their own projects and are often a stepping stone to permanent academic positions. However, fellowships can be highly competitive and often involve time-consuming application processes. In this session, we will discuss how to go about writing fellowship applications, some of the common pitfalls (especially for network scientists), and how to give yourself the best chance of success.
In the first part, Max gave a critical overview of his work on online political polarization and highlighted results and gains, but also, problems, hidden assumptions and oversimplifications that appear when social networks are analyzed in isolation.
He explained how this changed his opinion on how to properly approach the topic and the necessary steps to tackle it, focusing on the need for network science to integrate itself better and address existing contributions from other (non-technical) disciplines.
Following Max’s talk, we discussed how to write a successful application for research fellowships, benefiting from his first-hand experiences on it and how important it is to connect your research interests with meaningful real-world challenges that get funded.
