BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//Microsoft Corporation//Outlook 16.0 MIMEDIR//EN VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH X-MS-OLK-FORCEINSPECTOROPEN:TRUE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Central Standard Time BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:16011104T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=11 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:16010311T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYMONTH=3 TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT CLASS:PUBLIC CREATED:20260924T185316Z DESCRIPTION:Speaker:\nTimothy Tangherlini\, Elizabeth H. and Eugene A. Shur tleff Chair in Undergraduate Education\, Distinguished Professor in the De pt. of Scandinavian and the School of Information\, University of Californ ia\, Berkeley\n\n\nTitle:\nChat Agents\, Conspiracy Theory & Threat Narrat ives: Cultural Analytics and Narrative at Scale\n\n\nAbstract: \nIn this t alk\, I present current work on the intersection of conspiracy theory and narratives of threat\, with the shifting terrain of chat bots increasingly influencing the social media ecosystem. I present a generative model of n arratives of threat\, explore aspects of stance detection and the narrativ e sorting of actants and institutions into "insiders" and "outsiders." I t hen explore the topology of conspiracy theory as a narrative predilection for a comprehensive explanation of allegedly witnessed or experienced phe nomena along with inferences about connections based on a monologic world view. Using examples from earlier political social media discussions\, and updating these observations in the context of contemporaneous debates abo ut the role of AI in society allow for insight into the thicket of connect ions that characterize the ongoing negotiation of belief through narrative \n\n\nSpeaker Bio:\nTimothy R. Tangherlini \, Elizabeth H. and Eugene A. Shurtleff Cha ir of Undergraduate Education\, is a Distinguished Professor in the Dept. of Scandinavian and the School of Information at the University of Califor nia\, Berkeley. He is also associate director of the Berkeley Institute fo r Data Science and the Faculty Director of t he Berkeley Folklore Archive. He has worked on computational approaches t o folklore\, with an emphasis on stories and storytelling over the past th ree decades. Under the auspices of the NSF's Institute for Pure and Applie d Mathematics\, he co-directed a program on Culture Analytics\, as well as an NEH Institute on Network Analysis for the Humanities. He is the author of several books\, and various articles. He has done extensive fieldwork on storytelling among paramedics\, and shamanism in South Korea\, as well as archival work on rural 19th century Denmark. His current work focuses o n generative models of common story genres such as legend\, rumor\, person al experience narratives\, and conspiracy theories\, as well as understand ing cultural phenomena such as dance and cuisine across many scales of ana lysis.\n\nLocation:\nIn person: Chambers Hall\, 600 Foster Street\, Lower Level\nRemote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/95645191725 \nPasscode: NICO26\n\n\nAbout the Speaker Series:\nWednesdays@NICO is a vi brant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex syst ems\, networks\, and artificial intelligence. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the scho ols across Northwestern\, from applied math to sociology to biology and ev ery discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for info rmation on future speakers.\n \n DTEND;TZID="Central Standard Time":20261014T130000 DTSTAMP:20260924T185316Z DTSTART;TZID="Central Standard Time":20261014T120000 LAST-MODIFIED:20260924T185316Z LOCATION:Chambers Hall (600 Foster St\, Evanston\, IL 60201) PRIORITY:5 RECURRENCE-ID;TZID="Central Standard Time":20261014T120000 SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-us:Wed@NICO: Timothy Tangherlini\, University of Califo rnia\, Berkeley TRANSP:OPAQUE UID:040000008200E00074C5B7101A82E00800000000A06CD56D854BDD01000000000000000 010000000FD502B7634EB0B4F84204E9F72ECF6B8 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:
< p class=MsoNormal>Speaker:

Timothy Tangherlini\, Elizabeth H. and Eugene A. Shurtleff Chair in Undergraduate Education\, Distinguished Professor in the Dept. of Scandinavian and the School of Information\, University of California\, Berkeley

Title:

Chat Agents\, Con spiracy Theory &\; Threat Narratives: Cultural Analytics and Narrative at Scale

Abstract: \;

In this talk\, I present current work on the intersection of conspiracy theory and narratives of threat\, with the shifting terrain of chat bots increasingly influencing the social media ecosystem. I presen t a generative model of narratives of threat\, explore aspects of stance d etection and the narrative sorting of actants and institutions into "\ ;insiders"\; and "\;outsiders."\; I then explore the topology of conspiracy theory as a narrative predilection for &nb sp\;a comprehensive explanation of allegedly witnessed or experienc ed phenomena along with inferences about connections based on a monologic world view. Using examples from earlier political social media discussions \, and updating these observations in the context of contemporaneous debat es about the role of AI in society allow for insight into the thicket of c onnections that characterize the ongoing negotiation of belief through nar rative

Speaker Bio:

Timothy R. Tangherlini\, Elizabeth H. and Eugene A. Shurtleff Ch air of Undergraduate Education\, is a Distinguished Professor in the Dept. of Scandinavian and the School of Information at the University of Califo rnia\, Berkeley. He is also associate director of the Berkeley Institute for Data Science and the Faculty D irector of the Berkeley Folklore Archive.  \;He has worked on computat ional approaches to folklore\, with an emphasis on stories and storytellin g over the past three decades. Under the auspices of the NSF's Institute f or Pure and Applied Mathematics\, he co-directed a program on Culture Anal ytics\, as well as an NEH Institute on Network Analysis for the Humanities . He is the author of several books\, and various articles. He has done ex tensive fieldwork on storytelling among paramedics\, and shamanism in Sout h Korea\, as well as archival work on rural 19th century Denmark. His curr ent work focuses on generative models of common story genres such as legen d\, rumor\, personal experience narratives\, and conspiracy theories\, as well as understanding cultural phenomena such as dance and cuisine across many scales of analysis.


Location:

In person: Chambers Hall\, 600 Foste r Street\, Lower Level
Remote option:&nb sp\; https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/95645191725
Passcode: NICO26

About the Speaker Series:< /b>

Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems\, networks\, and artificial intelligence. It brings togeth er attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern\, from applie d math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please vis it: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for in formation on future speakers.

 \;

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