2024 CSST Summer Research Institute (Irvine)

Call for Participation in the
2024 CSST Summer Research Institute

Hosted by the Consortium for the Science of Sociotechnical Systems (CSST)

When:                     17–21 June 2024
Where:                    La Casa Del Camino, Laguna Beach, CA (in person)
Organizers:             Melissa Mazmanian & Madhu Reddy
Deadline:             Apply by 27 March, notifications by mid-April.
Submission link:    https://forms.gle/bFHXAC3TyFoKbkAe9

The CSST Summer Research Institute supports emerging scholars in sociotechnical systems research, including the following:

  • Doctoral students expected to graduate by the end of December 2025
  • Post-doctoral scholars (or any other position en route to faculty or industrial research positions)
  • Those in their first two years as research-oriented university faculty (start date on or after Aug 2022)
  • Those in their first two years as an industry researcher (and focused on publishing in peer-reviewed literature) (start date on or after Aug 2022)

In order to accommodate the largest possible number of participants from across the sociotechnical research community, individuals who have previously attended a CSST Summer Research Institute are ineligible to apply.

The Summer Research 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, health 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, please apply and tell us about it!

This year, we are delighted to have the following outstanding cohort of scholars joining us as mentors:

  • Sheena Erete (University of Maryland, College Park)
  • Christopher Le Dantec (Northeastern University)
  • Wayne Lutters (University of Maryland)
  • Carsten Oesterlund (Syracuse University)
  • Steven Sawyer (Syracuse University)
  • Katie Siek (Indiana University)

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 Research Institute participants and we expect to be able to reimburse up to $500 of travel expenses for participants. Accessible lodging is available.  Please feel free to reach out and let us know what we can do to ensure that you are able to participate in this year’s event. If you would like to bring children or partners, please let us know. The hotel  Regrettably, we are unable to cover or compensate for childcare expenses.

Thanks to the CSST steering committee, the Sloan Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, and the Department of Informatics for their support of this year’s Summer Institute.

Applying to the CSST 2024 Summer Institute

To apply, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/bFHXAC3TyFoKbkAe9 and upload a SINGLE PDF FILE, containing the following:

  • Sociotechnical Research Statement: 500-word single-spaced response to the question: “How does/will your work advance our ability to understand or design sociotechnical systems?” Include three to four relevant citations to situate your work within the larger research community. These may be a mix of your own publications or those that inspire your work.
  • Mentoring Statement: Please briefly tell us about what kind of mentoring you would find most beneficial for where you are in your career, including: (1) What characteristics of a mentor you would ideally like to be paired with, which may include characteristics of their job experience, their disciplinary or research background, other personal experiences, or demographics and (2) What kind of session content or skill development would you find most interesting or helpful.
  • CV

Students, please ask your advisor to address the following points in a signed PDF letter, and to email it to: mcreddy@uci.edu, with the subject line: “CSST Letter for <Name>”. Their letter should contain the following information:

  • Relevance of applicant’s work to the CSST community (one or two paragraphs)
  • Stage of applicant’s work (e.g., quals completed, proposal defended, etc.)
  • 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; and
  • Contribution to a balanced and diverse group of participants.

We anticipate inviting approximately 21 participants and we expect to extend invitations by mid-April.

For more information about the 2024 CSST Summer Research Institute, contact Marina Fedorova mfedorov@uci.edu. For information about the broader community of researchers interested in the design and study of sociotechnical systems, see: https://www.sociotech.net.