Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

Call for Applications 2026 - Summer Institute in AI Methods for Social Scientists (AIMS)

July 26–31, 2026 | Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), Stanford University

Online application due May 8, 2026. Letters of support due May 13, 2026.

Application portal can be accessed at: https://applycasbs.stanford.edu/summerapplication/

Purpose

Artificial intelligence is transforming what social scientists can study, how they can study it, and what questions are now possible to ask. The Summer Institute in AI Methods for Social Scientists (AIMS) brings together scholars from across the social sciences for an intensive week of learning, practice, and collaboration at CASBS.

Organizers

AIMS is co-organized by Noshir Contractor, Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University and 2025–26 CASBS fellow, and Lara Tiedens, Sara Miller McCune Interim Director of CASBS and 2008-09 CASBS fellow.

Eligibility

AIMS is designed for scholars in the social sciences (sociology, psychology, political science, economics, organizational behavior, communication, and related fields) who study fundamental questions of human life and social organization and are eager to bring AI methods into their research. The institute is specifically intended for scholars who are early in their journey with AI methods but see it as an important direction for their research. We welcome applicants at all career stages, with preference given to pre-tenure faculty and postdoctoral researchers; strong senior graduate students may also apply.

No prior experience with AI tools or programming is required. Participants should be active researchers with ongoing empirical projects to which they are eager to apply new methods.

Support

CASBS will provide lodging and meals for the week. We request participants use their research funding for travel to and from Stanford, but if that is not possible, we may be able to provide travel expenses as well. Funding is available for both domestic and international participants; additional details on expenses will be provided upon acceptance.

Structure and Curriculum

Over the course of the week, participants will learn about a number of ways to make use of AI methods in social science research, including:

  • AI augmenting the research enterprise — leveraging AI tools throughout every stage of the research lifecycle, from developing research questions and conducting literature reviews, to designing studies, collecting and analyzing data, interpreting results; and writing, reviewing, and disseminating findings for multiple audiences; including a frank discussion of the opportunities, challenges, and pitfalls at each stage
  • AI understanding language and symbolic data — using AI to analyze human-generated text, networks, and other traces of social life (for example, using word embeddings or large language models to measure cultural change or organizational dynamics)
  • AI understanding embodied and multimodal data — applying multimodal methods that extend beyond language
  • AI interacting with humans — deploying AI as stimulus, respondent, or interactant in studies to reveal human attitudes and behaviors (for example, AI agents ranging from chatbots to immersive embodied avatars interacting with humans in scenarios not easily instantiated at scale, if at all, in the offline world; AI agents serving as collaborators on the research team)
  • AI replacing humans — building synthetic users as digital twins of humans to study human behaviors and attitudes, as well as simulating, at scale, how populations respond to interventions
  • Leading researchers will present cutting-edge work, and there will be hands-on workshops in which participants work directly with the novel tools and platforms. Discussion groups will consider applications to participants’ areas of interest and potential collaboration.

Participants will leave with hands-on experience using AI tools, a concrete sense of how these methods apply to their own research, and a network of colleagues working at this frontier across the social sciences.

Faculty

Faculty include Matt Jackson (Stanford), Noshir Contractor (Northwestern), Sameer Srivastava (UC Berkeley), Amir Goldberg (Stanford), Dashun Wang (Northwestern), Angela Aristidou (UCL), Robb Willer (Stanford), and Joel Leibo (Google DeepMind). Other guest faculty will be appointed in the coming weeks.

Application Process

Applications should be submitted via the online portal and include:

  • A current CV (PDF, under 2 MB)
  • A brief statement (up to 2 pages) describing how you hope to use AI in your research in the near future
  • A letter of recommendation that speaks to your research

When submitting, you will be asked to indicate your current level of engagement with AI tools, ranging from no prior use to integrative use in your research practice.

Applications are due May 8, 2026. Letters of recommendation are due May 13, 2026. Decisions will be communicated by approximately May 18, 2026.

Application portal can be accessed at: https://applycasbs.stanford.edu/summerapplication/

Questions? Contact  casbs-summerinstitute@stanford.edu.