Events
Past Event
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Alina Arseniev-Koehler, UC San Diego "Disease Frames and their Consequences for Stigma, Advocacy, and Research Funds"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speaker:
Alina Arseniev-Koehler, Postdoctoral Fellow, UC San Diego in the Division of Biomedical Informatics, and Assistant Professor of Sociology, Purdue University
Title:
Disease Frames and their Consequences for Stigma, Advocacy, and Research Funds
Abstract:
Illnesses are often understood through frames: for instance, as battles, journeys, or even as criminal acts. Framing highlights some aspects of a condition, while hiding other aspects; this can be stigmatizing or motivating. This ongoing research with Rachel Best studies disease frames at scale, including their consequences for stigma, advocacy, and research funds. We examine 6 frames for 106 conditions in news media, using a combination of word embedding and regression methods. Our corpus includes over four million news and magazine articles and news broadcasts, about health and illness, and published between 1980 and 2018. First, we examine how diseases are framed around gender, medicalization, criminalization, and philanthropy, as well as battle and journey metaphors. Second, we examine the extent to which each frame is associated with diseases’ level of stigma, advocacy, and amount of federal research funding. Finally, we examine relationships between these frames: to what extent do illness frames compete versus cohere?
Speaker Bio:
Alina Arseniev-Koehler is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Purdue University, currently on leave for postdoctoral training in biomedical informatics at UC San Diego. She specializes in cultural sociology, the cultural determinants of heath including social stigma, and computational methods (especially, natural language processing). Her research has been featured in top tier outlets including PNAS, American Journal of Public Health, and American Sociological Review.
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/92596866667
Passcode: NICO2024
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Data Science Nights - March 2026 - Speaker: Dawei Xie, Department of Computer Science
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
5:30 PM
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M416, Technological Institute
Details
MARCH MEETING: Thursday, March 19, 2026 at 5:30pm (US Central)
LOCATION:
ESAM Conference Room, Tech M416
2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208
AGENDA:
5:30pm - Meet and greet with refreshments
6:00pm - Talk with Dawei Xie, PhD student, Department of Computer Science, Northwestern University, working with Prof. Marcelo Worsley in the tiilt Lab.
TALK TITLE:
AI-Augmented Learning Analytics for Understanding Collaborative Discussions
ABSTRACT:
Collaborative learning has been recognized as an important skill for the 21st century, yet understanding what constitutes high-quality collaborative discussion remains a challenge. This talk explores how AI systems might move beyond traditional behavioral metrics to support nuanced semantic interpretations of collaborative learning. I present our recent work on an AI-augmented analytics system that transforms real-time group discussions into structured representations, and enables educators to explore collaboration quality through interaction with a conversational agent. I discuss both the technical architecture and the design considerations around how users and AI can jointly shape analytical outputs. Finally, I share findings on how this interplay can afford richer, more grounded sensemaking through analytical dialogue.
DATA SCIENCE NIGHTS are monthly meetings featuring presentations and discussions about data-driven science and complex systems, organized by Northwestern University graduate students and scholars. Students and researchers of all levels are welcome! For more information: http://bit.ly/nico-dsn
FUTURE DATES:
Data Science Nights will be held on Thursday evenings in the winter and spring terms, with future dates on April 30, and May 28, 2026.
Time
Thursday, March 19, 2026 at 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
M416, Technological Institute Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Spring Series returns on April 8th!
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
The Wednesdays@NICO Speaker Series returns on April 8th for the spring term, running through May 20th, 2026. Detailed speaker info will be shared in the coming weeks.
Speakers:
4/08/2026 - Yu-Ru Lin - University of Pittsburgh
4/15/2026 - Nihar Shah - Carnegie Mellon University
4/22/2026 - Michelle Birkett - Northwestern University
4/29/2026 - Lightning Talks with NU Scholars - Sign up here!
5/06/2026 - Daniel Stouffer - Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Germany (NU Alum '07)
5/13/2026 - Hamsa Bastani - University of Pennsylvania
5/20/2026 - Andreia Sofia Teixeira - Northeastern University London
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: Zoom links will be available
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, April 8, 2026 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)