Chris Liebold
Dissertation Award of the ICA Computational Methods Division 2025 for Dr. Anke Stoll
We are pleased to congratulate Dr. Anke Stoll for winning the ICA Computational Methods Division's biennial dissertation award. Her cumulative dissertation "Machine Learning for the Automated Content Analysis of Incivility in Online Discussions" comprises 7 published papers. Anke Stoll completed her PhD at the Faculty of Philosophy at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and successfully defended her dissertation entitled "Machine Learning for the Automated Content Analysis of Incivility in Online Discussions" on December 1, 2023. Below you will find the laudation she received from the reviewers of the ICA computational methods division:
Her dissertation centerson the methodological challenges of measuring incivility through machine learning methods, a timely and complex issue across many digital publics. These challenges are addressed through the development of high-quality computational text analysis tools, firmlygrounded in theoretical definitions and supported by a rigorous validation framework. A key strength of the dissertation is the effort to capture the elusive nature of incivility and incorporate it into language models. Her very successful participation inshared tasks and the development of benchmark datasets are highly notable strengths, the fine-grained distinctions drawn, for example between incivility and impoliteness, are another one. Incivility is undoubtedly a serious concern and its detection bearsfar-reaching consequences, be it in case of adequate classification or when falsely attributed. Hence, the task of finding valid measurements, and thereby contributing to tools that support better moderation of digital spaces, is a crucial one. Thankfully,there are scholars who consider this, from a methodological perspective, an "enjoyable" challenge, as this scholar, herself humorously notes. Point taken-and well proven: the dissertation consists of seven research articles, including publications in leadingmethodological journals such as Communication Methods and Measures or Computational Communication Research, as well as in interdisciplinary outlets like Computational Linguistics, demonstrating both scholarly excellence and cross-field recognition. Oh, anddid we mention that the created and openly shared approaches and methods also addressed a non-English context, namely German, thereby and en passant promoting research inclusivity and enabling further work in diverse linguistic environments? Taken together,this level of productivity, rigor, joy, and impact makes the dissertation a clear and very strong winner for this year's ICA Computational Methods Dissertation Award. Congratulations!
We think that says it all. You can read the dissertation here: https: //docserv.uni-duesseldorf.de/servlets/DerivateServlet/Derivate-70121/Stoll_MachineLearning_Incivility_Dissertation_2024%20.pdf
Congratulations Anke!