IQLA-GIAT Summer School in Quantitative Analysis of Textual Data

Presentation
The quantitative analysis of textual data is an object of research in many
sectors of linguistics, computer sciences, mathematics and statistics and
it is used as a research tool within a number of disciplines such as
psychology, sociology, sociolinguistics, education, history, political
studies, communication and media studies. The recent evolution of
information technologies (IT) and quantitative methods has led to a number
of distinct but interrelated sectors (e.g. computational linguistics,
information retrieval, natural language processing, text mining, text
analytics, sentiment analysis, opinion mining, etc.) with interesting
industrial applications (e.g. electronic dictionaries, artificial
intelligence, computer-aided translation, web reputation) and, today, text
analysis is an umbrella term referring to a wide range of qualitative,
quantitative and mixed-methods approaches.
Recent studies have repeatedly stressed the need for developing, adopting
and sharing interdisciplinary approaches and the IQLA-GIATSummer School is
the ideal environment for developing innovative analytical tools by pooling
together the research methods of both Quantitative Linguistics and
Statistical Analysis of Textual Data.
The IQLA-GIAT Summer School is characterized by three main elements:
1. a general part devoted to quantitative linguistics;
2. a special issue addressed to the problem of ?measuring style? (style and
computational stylistics is the main topic of 2015 edition, in the first
edition of 2013 the main topic was authorship attribution)
3. several lab-sessions dedicated to computer-aided analysis of textual
data.

Objectives
Teaching activities will raise questions that can be answered thanks to
quantitative methods implemented within a text analysis framework and other
procedures that may be used to identify and compare the characteristics of
texts. The aim is to discuss with students, young researchers and scholars
of different disciplines strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
of quantitative methods for text analysis.
Participants selected for the IQLA-GIAT Summer School have the opportunity
to exploit different tools within the same environment and the same tool in
different environments.
The IQLA-GIAT Summer School aims at:
1. sharing information on software, corpora, relevant literature and
research results;
2. promoting a dialogue among different disciplines on actual research
issues;
3. developing innovative analytical tools and integrated research methods;
4. introducing students and young researchers to new strains of research
and applications;
5. sharing state-of-the-art knowledge in:
a. Corpora and textual data collection
b. Quantitative linguistics
c. Computational stylistics
d. Content mapping and data visualization
e. Computer-aided analysis of textual data

Credits
The IQLA-GIAT Summer School in Quantitative Analysis of Textual Data is
organized by GIAT ? Interdisciplinary Text Analysis Group (www.giat.org) in
collaboration with the International Quantitative Linguistics Association (
www.iqla.org) and the Department of Computational Linguistics
(Computerlinguistik und Digital Humanities) of the University of Trier (
www.uni-trier.de).
The IQLA-GIAT Summer School is a project funded by the University of Padua,
coordinated by prof. Arjuna Tuzzi (University of Padua).

Application and deadlines
The IQLA-GIAT Summer School is open to 20 participants including
researchers, scholars and postgraduate students. The selection of 20
participants is due to the capacity of the laboratory room.
Applicants should send a file in pdf format including:
a. curriculum vitae;
b. personal mission statement and research interests (max 500 words);
c. request for ECTS credit (if needed – 3 CFU).
Applications should be sent to the following address: qatd.school@fisppa.it
Application deadline: Tuesday 18th August 2015 (open until registry is
filled).

Selection criteria
a. privilege foreign applicants (Italian candidates are not excluded) and
younger candidates;
b. encourage participation from different countries;
c. comply with gender equality.
Candidates will receive a confirmation of acceptance by Tuesday 18th August
2015.
Tuition fee: ?250,00
The IQLA-GIAT Summer School will not provide financial support for
participants. All participants have to provide by themselves to flight,
accommodation and other expenses during the school. Indications for
accommodations will be provided accordingly.

Schedule
The IQLA-GIAT Summer School will take place from Monday 21st to Friday 25th
September 2015.
The IQLA-GIAT Summer School is a full-time intensive course held:
? On Monday from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm
? From Tuesday to Thursday from 9:30 am to 6:00 pm
? On Friday from 9.30 am to 4.00 pm
On Friday, the last two hours will be left for the final assessment.

Location
University of Padua
Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education & Applied Psychology
(Dipartimento di Filosofia, Sociologia, Pedagogia e Psicologia Applicata –
FISPPA)
Sociology buildings
via Cesarotti, 10/12
35123 Padova, ITALY

Classes
All courses are in English.
Teaching activities include lectures and lab sessions, as well as tutorials
illustrating software tools.
The teaching staff includes researchers and experts from different European
Universities: Toulouse II (France), Trier (Germany), Athens (Greece),
Neuchatel (Switzerland), Kraców (Poland), Padova and Trieste (Italy).

Lectures
The IQLA-GIAT Summer School is organized in 18 lessons of 2 hours each (in
total 36 hours) among which approximately 8 lessons are specifically
organized as laboratory sessions (this is meant to be as activities in the
IT laboratory with individual IT workstations and active participation
among the class for the development of projects and data analysis) and one
dedicated to the final assessment. As a consequence, practical activities
cover almost 50% of the total amount of hours required.
The second edition of the Summer School is organized also considering the
results and suggestions obtained through the evaluation questionnaire done
in the 2013 edition.

Final Assessment
1) All participants will be requested to fill in a questionnaire to assess
the main aspects of the IQLA-GIAT Summer School (e.g. organization,
teaching, materials, facilities and equipment, expectations, satisfaction
rate, suggestions etc.).
2) If they wish to receive ECTS credits (3 CFU), participants shall take a
written test including 30 multiple choice questions (one correct answer out
of four). The passing grade is 15 correct answers. Grades will reflect the
sum of all correct answers (one point) according to the following range: A
(29-30 points); B (25-28 points); C (21-24 points); D (17-20 points); E
(15-16 points).

Website
IQLA-GIAT Summer School will provide a specific website within GIAT?s
domain (www.giat.org) for the distribution of learning resources, links and
bibliographic references before, during and after the Summer School.
Secretariat
For any further information and details about terms, deadlines, application
forms and payment modalities, please contact:
? Dott.ssa Francesca Bacchin: qatd.school@fisppa.it
? Dott. Stefano Sbalchiero: qatd.school@fisppa.it

Source: Corpora List

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