Trento Center for Social Research Methods
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Portineria del Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale
Via Verdi, 26 I - 38122 Trento
tel. +39 0461 281300
portineria.sociologia [at] unitn.it
Zoom platform
This seminar is part of a series organised by Trento Center for Social Research and Methods research unit.
Next Seminar
12 May 2021, 4.30 - 6 pm
- Gian Maria Campedelli – University of Trento
Combining complex networks and computational modeling in terrorism research
To get the access codes (next to the event) please register online within the day before. To register on the day of the event, write to segreteria.srs [at] unitn.it
In the last decades, terrorism has caused or exacerbated humanitarian, economic, political, and social crises worldwide. Although it has consistently declined over the past few years, terrorist attacks still lead to thousands of fatalities in several regions of the world. In light of the salience and relevance of this phenomenon, scholars have called for the development of a dedicated scientific field focusing on the computational study of conflicts, civil wars, and terrorism. Yet, to date, efforts to answer this call have been scattered. In the attempt to move in this direction, I will present recent research aimed at exploring the potential of complex networks and artificial intelligence for studying terrorist behaviors. By unfolding graph representation methods for temporal and multi-modal data, I will illustrate the promise of these approaches in capturing interdependent dynamic patterns of terrorist events and operational similarities across terrorist actors. The seminar will emphasize both the theoretical and practical insights that computational methods can offer in this emerging area of research. Finally, I will also discuss the challenges associated with data quality, transdisciplinary dialogues, and rare events that limit the deployability of statistical findings for effective counter-terrorism intelligence interventions.
Biography
Gian Maria Campedelli is a postdoctoral research fellow in Computational Sociology and Criminology at the University of Trento. He holds a Ph.D. in Criminology from Università Cattolica in Milan, and from 2016 to 2019 he worked as a research fellow at Transcrime - the Joint Research Centre on Transnational Crime of Università Cattolica, University of Bologna and University of Perugia. In 2018 he also held a visiting research scholar position at Carnegie Mellon University - School of Computer Science. His research interests focus on the development and application of computational methods for the study of terrorism and organized crime, with specific expertise in complex networks and machine learning.
Seminar Series
24 February 2021, 4.30 PM - 6 PM
- Thomas Van De Putte – University of Trento
Interactional approaches to Holocaust memory
In this talk, Thomas Van de Putte addresses various research approaches and methodologies that can be used to study how people attribute meaning to past events that they have not witnessed themselves. Bringing together perspectives from linguistic ethnography, micro-discourse analysis and cultural studies, Van de Putte specifically shows how we can analyse the role the memory of the Holocaust plays in everyday conversations about the past. By giving an interactional twist to theories of cultural and collective memory, he discusses questions of morality, culture and memory politics in discourses about the past. In this talk he outlines how these questions operate in his ongoing projects and in his PhD research. Thomas Van de Putte is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Trento. He gained his PhD in Culture, Media and Creative Industries from King’s College London. Before entering academia, Thomas worked as an investigative journalist for various print and television media across Europe, and covered headline news from the Benelux and France for Reuters. To get the access codes (next to the event) please register online within the day before. To register on the day of the event, write to segreteria.srs [at] unitn.it
24 March 2021, 4.30 PM - 6 PM
- Guido Salza – University of Trento
The impact of school failure
To get the access codes (next to the event) please register online within the day before. To register on the day of the event, write to segreteria.srs [at] unitn.it
There is a large debate around the practice of grade repetition as a remedial provision for poor school performance. Advocates of grade repetition claim that students having difficulties benefit from additional time in school and conceive grade repetition as a valid incentive to elicit effort and safeguard school quality. Opponents believe that, due to the attached negative stigma, grade repetition hampers pupils’ future schooling careers. In particular, the OECD and other international institutions call for a limitation of grade repetition and frame it as a waste of human capital at the system level. Focusing on the first year of high school in Italy, we address the following research questions: What is the causal impact of grade repetition on children’s future schooling careers? Is it beneficial, or does it increase the risk of further failures and school dropout? Is there evidence of heterogeneous effects across social groups? To this aim we exploit a unique longitudinal data archive linking administrative data on students’ school progression (provided by the Ministry of Education) with information on individual test scores and family background (provided by Invalsi). We estimate the causal effect of grade retention using matching strategies that consider both individual and contextual factors. Our findings reveal that grade repetition raises the probability of future failure, in terms of changes to less prestigious school tracks and dropout from the school system. Moreover, we find those who suffer most from school failure are children with low parental education and with a migrant background.
Guido Salza is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Trento in the Trento Center for Social Research Methods. He received his PhD in Sociology and Methodology of Social Research from the Universities of Milan and Turin. Between 2018 and 2019, he was a visiting student at the Observatoire Sociologique du Changement- SciencesPo, and at the Institut National d'Étude Démographique in Paris. His research interests lie in the broad area of educational inequalities, focusing on the determinants and effects of school failure. Guido is also particularly interested in putting together, handling, and interpreting large data sets.
21 April 2021, 4.30 PM - 6 PM
- Valentina Marcheselli – University of Trento
Planetary analogs and remote sensing : an ethnography of cognition
To get the access codes (next to the event) please register online within the day before. To register on the day of the event, write to segreteria.srs [at] unitn.it
Rovers and landers have scouted the surface of our planetary neighbor, Mars, since the 1970s. Today, a new wave of interest is bringing an ever increasing number of scientists from different disciplinary backgrounds (geology, planetary science, chemistry, biology, engineering and so on) into the field of space exploration. Space science is not an otherworldly enterprise, but a field deeply rooted in earthly knowledge making practices. The design of space missions, their operation and the interpretation of the data thereby collected are historically, culturally and socially situated.
Drawing on the methodological integration of ethnographic research and multimodal interaction analysis of video recordings, this project aims to explore the interplay and the mutual shaping of the body, the technological apparatus, the environment and the senses throughout the lifetime – from testing to data interpretation – of Ma_MISS, an instrument to be operated on the Martian subsurface aboard the next European Space Agency (ESA) rover.
Valentina Marcheselli is a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Trento. Graduated in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Bologna, Valentina gained her PhD in Science and Technology Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Her current research project looks at geology and planetary science as embodied practice.
12 May 2021, 4.30 PM - 6 PM
- Gian Maria Campedelli – University of Trento
Combining complex networks and computational modeling in terrorism research
To get the access codes (next to the event) please register online within the day before. To register on the day of the event, write to segreteria.srs [at] unitn.it
In the last decades, terrorism has caused or exacerbated humanitarian, economic, political, and social crises worldwide. Although it has consistently declined over the past few years, terrorist attacks still lead to thousands of fatalities in several regions of the world. In light of the salience and relevance of this phenomenon, scholars have called for the development of a dedicated scientific field focusing on the computational study of conflicts, civil wars, and terrorism. Yet, to date, efforts to answer this call have been scattered. In the attempt to move in this direction, I will present recent research aimed at exploring the potential of complex networks and artificial intelligence for studying terrorist behaviors. By unfolding graph representation methods for temporal and multi-modal data, I will illustrate the promise of these approaches in capturing interdependent dynamic patterns of terrorist events and operational similarities across terrorist actors. The seminar will emphasize both the theoretical and practical insights that computational methods can offer in this emerging area of research. Finally, I will also discuss the challenges associated with data quality, transdisciplinary dialogues, and rare events that limit the deployability of statistical findings for effective counter-terrorism intelligence interventions.
Biography
Gian Maria Campedelli is a postdoctoral research fellow in Computational Sociology and Criminology at the University of Trento. He holds a Ph.D. in Criminology from Università Cattolica in Milan, and from 2016 to 2019 he worked as a research fellow at Transcrime - the Joint Research Centre on Transnational Crime of Università Cattolica, University of Bologna and University of Perugia. In 2018 he also held a visiting research scholar position at Carnegie Mellon University - School of Computer Science. His research interests focus on the development and application of computational methods for the study of terrorism and organized crime, with specific expertise in complex networks and machine learning.
