The Consortium for the Science of Sociotechnical Systems (CSST)
Calls for Participation
in the
2022 CSST Summer Research Institute
When: 6-9 June 2022
Where: University of Texas at Austin (on campus, in person)
Organizer: James Howison, University of Texas at Austin, Joined by ~10 Expert Mentors
Deadline: Apply by 18 April (was 15 April), notifications by end April.
Submission link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=csst2022
The CSST Summer Research Institute supports emerging scholars in sociotechnical systems research.
Eligible emerging scholars are:
- Doctoral students expected to graduate before December 2023
- Post-doctoral scholars (any position en route to faculty and industry research)
- Those in their first two years as research oriented university faculty (start date after Aug 2020)
- Those in the first two years as an industry researcher (and focused on publishing in the peer-reviewed literature) (start date after Aug 2020)
We intentionally span this wide range to create great interactions and insight/advice among participants (as well as from mentors).
Unfortunately those who have previously attended a CSST summer institute are ineligible to apply (this includes participants in the 2021 online CSST).
The institute has been an activity of the Consortium for the Science of Sociotechnical Systems Research (CSST) since 2008. Topics and problem domains of focus in socio-technical systems research include (but are not limited to) personal health and well-being; eScience, and citizen science; co-production, open source/innovation, and new forms of work; cultural heritage and information access; social informatics; civic hacking, engagement and government; human-robot interaction; disaster response; cybersecurity, surveillance and privacy; education and learning; information systems; platforms.
This is a wide area of coverage, so if your interests are in people/organizations/society together with tech/systems/data and you are (or hope to be) part of intellectual communities such as CSCW, HCI, social computing, organization studies, information visualization, social informatics, sociology, information systems, social media and society, medical informatics, computer science, ICT for development, education, learning science, journalism, and political science, then you fit well with this program and you should apply!
And if we’ve missed your topic/community, apply and tell us about it!
In addition to these long-standing areas of focus for the Institute, this year we are also highlighting and inviting submissions from those whose research resides in the area of Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace. By this, we mean scholars interested in the NSF SaTC program as detailed here: https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504709
Participants will engage in peer networking, roundtable discussion of individual and group research interests, and skill-building tutorials to help participants identify substantive ways that the theories, approaches, and tools within the larger community can advance their work with the design and study of sociotechnical systems.
Lodging, meals, and other onsite costs will be covered for all Summer Institute participants and we will be able to reimburse up to $500 of travel expenses for participants. Thanks to the work of the CSST steering committee leading a round of funding for the Summer Institute, obtaining funding from the Sloan Foundation, and the NSF (and everyone’s flexibility through the pandemic!)
Applying for CSST 2022 Summer Institute
To apply upload a SINGLE PDF FILE to Easychair, containing the following:
- 500-word single-spaced response to the question: “How does/will your work advance our ability to understand or design sociotechnical systems?”
- If post-doc or faculty please include your current title, institution, and unit (department/college)
- If student, include institution, advisor, degree program, date of proposal defense, realistic date of program completion;
- Include three to four relevant citations to situate your work within the larger research community (Can be a mix of your publications, or those that inspire your work).
- If applicable, also include a link to your personal website.
- CV (append to narrative in a single PDF file)
Students, please ask your advisor to address the following points in a signed PDF letter, and to email to: csstcontact@gmail.com, with the subject line: “Letter for <Name>”. Letter contents:
- Relevance of applicant’s work to the CSST community (one or two paragraphs)
- Stage of applicant’s work (e.g., quals completed; proposal defended; data collected)
- A date by which the advisor is confident the dissertation will be completed
The CSST Summer Institute Advisory Group will review applications shortly thereafter, using the following criteria:
- Clear articulation of the hoped-for contribution to theoretical analysis and theory-building, practice, and/or design of sociotechnical systems.
- Likelihood of Summer Research Institute participation providing significant practical benefit for the individual;
- Contribution to a balanced and diverse group of participants
- Relevance to the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace community (advantageous but not required)
We anticipate inviting approximately 30 participants and we expect to provide invitations by the end of April.
For more information about the Summer Research Institute, contact James Howison <jhowison@ischool.utexas.edu>. For information about the broader community of researchers interested in design and study of sociotechnical systems, see: http://www.sociotech.net.