Prof. Dr. Simon Kühne
Prof. Dr. Simon Kühne
Professor of Social Data Science
- Phone
- +49 521 106-4681
- Telephone secretary
- +49 521 106-3847
- Office
- Gebäude X B3-205
News
Team
- Simon Kühne studied sociology and survey methodology at the University of Duisburg-Essen and completed his doctorate at Humboldt-University Berlin and the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). In 2018, he joined Bielefeld University. His methodological research focuses on survey methodology and computational social science, particularly the use of social media data for social research. His substantive research addresses social and regional inequalities, gender, and the societal implications and perceptions of artificial intelligence. Simon Kühne is a board member of the German Society for Online Research (DGOF e.V.).
Dr. Kerstin Ostermann
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin im Bereich Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung mit dem Schwerpunkt Social Data Science (Prof. Kühne), Leibniz Campus Phase 2
- Kerstin Ostermann did her PhD in Sociology at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and studied at Georg-August University Göttingen, the National University of Ireland in Galway and Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. In the spring of 2025, she was a research fellow in the Sociology Department at Harvard University. Her research lies at the intersection of spatial, labor and neighborhood sociology. With a focus on quantitative sociology and computational social science, she investigates the interplay of spatial contexts and individual behavior.
Konstantin Wandel
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter im Bereich Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung mit dem Schwerpunkt Social Data Science (Prof. Kühne), Leibniz Campus Phase 2
- Konstantin Wandel completed his M.A. in Politics, Administration and International Relations, as well as his B.A. in Sociology, Politics and Economics, at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen. He previously worked as a student researcher at the Center for Political Communication and at the Regionales Innovations- und Technologietransferzentrum. His research focuses on the intersection of advances in natural language processing, institutional trust, and the proliferation of asymmetries across digital and analog spaces.
Teaching
Research
The scientific work of the Social Data Science group combines foundational methodological research with application-oriented substantive research. On the one hand, we address methodological questions in survey research, the analysis of geospatial data, and the use of new data sources and technologies in the social sciences, such as social media data and AI models. On the other hand, we investigate – both descriptively and through causal analysis – empirical questions on social inequalities in their many forms.
Our current research can be divided into the following areas:
- Survey methodology (sampling and weighting, recruitment of participants via social media, mode effects)
- Data science in the social sciences (new data sources and analytical methods, especially social media data, large-scale text and image data, as well as large language models)
- Geospatial data analysis (spatial inequalities, linking contextual and individual-level data, application of causal-analytical methods)
- Social inequality (e.g., inequalities in health and the labor market, sexual and gender diversity, racism, institutional trust)
- Ongoing Third-party Funded Research Projects
- Complete Third-party Funded Research Projects
04/2022 - 12/2024 “Regionalisierung rassistischer und diskriminierender Diskurse im Social Web (Teilprojekt des FoDiRa Forschungsnetzwerks)", DeZIM Rassismusmonitoring, Bundesmittel des BMFSFJ, mit Dorian Tsolak, Martin Kroh, Stefan Knauff (Universität Bielefeld & IKG Bielefeld)
01/2022 - 12/2024 “Die Bedeutung politischer Einstellungen für die Berufswahl und den Aufstieg im öffentlichen Dienst", Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat (BMI), Teilprojekt des FGZ-Verbundes „Rassismus in staatlichen Institutionen (InRa)" mit Martin Kroh (Universität Bielefeld)
10/2020 - 09/2024 "Establishing an innovative research and teaching data infrastructure“, Teilprojekt 4 im Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus „Studying Regional Development Dynamics and their Political Consequences“ (SOEP-RegioHub), www.lsc-soep-regiohub.com
02/2020 - 01/2023 “Geschlechter- und sexuelle Diversität im Fokus: Teilhabe und Vielfalt der Lebensformen (SOEP-GeSMin)”, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Kooperationsprojekt mit dem SOEP/DIW Berlin, Co-Projektleitung mit Mirjam Fischer (Universität Köln)
06/2020 - 05/2023 "Das Elternhaus als gesellschaftlicher Mikrokosmos: Intergenerationale Transmission von Einstellungen zu Zusammenhalt", BIE_F_03 - Teilprojekt im Forschungsinstitut Gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt (FGZ), Co-Projektleitung mit Martin Kroh (Universität Bielefeld)
03/2021 - 09/2022 “Interpersonal Trust at Times of a Pandemic”, VolkswagenStiftung, Co-Projektleitung mit Martin Kroh (Universität Bielefeld)
04/2020 - 03/2021 “Sozio-ökonomische Faktoren und Folgen der Verbreitung des Coronavirus in Deutschland (SOEP-CoV)” Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Co-Projektleitung mit Stefan Liebig
09/2020 - 12/2020 “Rassismus im Social Web - Aufbau eines Rassismus-Monitoring beginnend mit Twitter” DeZIM Rassismusmonitoring, Bundesmittel des BMFSFJ, mit Dorian Tsolak, Anna Karmann und Stefan Knauff (Universität Bielefeld)
09/2020 - 12/2020 “Showing your religion: The hijab and the equality of opportunities in the German labour market” DeZIM Rassismusmonitoring, Bundesmittel des BMFSFJ, mit Zerrin Salikutluk (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) und Magdalena Krieger (DIW Berlin)
09/2020 - 12/2020 “’Woher kommst du eigentlich?’ - Exploration untererforschter Erfahrungen von Alltagsrassismus offline und online” DeZIM Rassismusmonitoring, Bundesmittel des BMFSFJ, mit Marvin Brinkmann und Frederic Gerdon (MZES, Universität Mannheim)