Curriculum Vitae | Hendrik Erz

Hendrik Erz, M.A.

A picture of me

Political Sociology, Computational Social Science, Analytical Sociology, and Computational Text Analysis

Curriculum Vitae (PDF, 55.6 KB)

Hendrik Erz

PhD Candidate

Address
Institute for Analytical Sociology (IAS)
Linköping University

Kopparhammaren 7
Kungsgatan 56, Entrance 56D
601 74 Norrköping, Sweden
Contact

Research Interests

Political Sociology, Computational Social Science, Analytical Sociology, Computational Text Analysis/NLP, Legislative Debates, Policymaking, U.S. Congress, Science of Science, Ethics of AI

Education

Since 2020
PhD in Analytical Sociology, Linköping University (Defense: Oct 20, 2025)

On the Record: Understanding A Century of Congressional Lawmaking Through Speech and Vote Behavior
Supervisors: Jacob Habinek (IAS, Linköping), Étienne Ollion (CNRS, Paris)
2017
M.A. in Sociology, University of Bonn
2014
B.A. in History, University of Bonn (minor: Political Science)

Extracurricular

2021
Science of Science Summer School (S4)
Syracuse University, New York, United States

Employment

Since 2020
Researcher in Analytical Sociology
Institute for Analytical Sociology (IAS)
Linköping University
2019-20
Researcher in Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence
Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy (IFSH)
University of Hamburg
2017-19
Research Assistant Domestic Policy / Digitalization
Department for Political Science and Sociology
University of Bonn

Publications

Manuscripts in Preparation (available upon request)
Hendrik Erz. Policymaking in Times of Crisis: Discursive Dynamics in U.S. Congress, 1960-1990. (Preprint available at SocArXiv: )
Hendrik Erz. Brittle Parties? Dissent, Breaking Ranks, and Party Power in U.S. Congress.
Hendrik Erz. Think Alike, Talk Alike? Measuring Issue-Level Polarization in Congressional Speech Using Community Detection-Algorithms.
Hendrik Erz, Sebastian Giessler. Language Models from the Sweatshop? Helping Researchers Avoid Ethical and Legal Issues With Off-The-Shelf Software.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
2025
Manika Lamba, Hendrik Erz (2025). Thanking the World: Exploring gender-based differences in acknowledgment patterns and support systems in theses. Data and Information Management 100092.
Alexandra Dirksen, Sebastian Giessler, Hendrik Erz, Martin Johns, Tobias Fiebig (2025). Don’t Patch the Researcher, Patch the Game: A Systematic Approach for Responsible Research via Federated Ethics Boards. Proceedings of the New Security Paradigms Workshop, 126–141. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery.
2019
Hendrik Erz (2019). Der lange Schatten von Gustave Le Bon. Zum sprachlichen Einfluss der Crowd Science auf die Soziologie der Gewalt. Soziologiemagazin 2/2019, 71–88.
(“The long shadow of Gustave Le Bon. On the linguistic influence of Crowd Science on the Sociology of Violence.”)
Books and Book Chapters
2025
Hendrik Erz (2025). On the Record: Understanding a Century of Congressional Lawmaking through Speech and Vote Behavior. Linköping University Press.
2018
Hendrik Erz (2018). Karl Marx und das digitale Zeitalter, in: Klasse, Kapital und Revolution. 200 Jahre Marx. Dietz, Bonn, pp. 145–156.
Other Publications
2023
Hendrik Erz, Anastasia Menshikova (2023). Text als Daten. Extraktion von Variablen mittels LSTM-Netzwerken. In: Paula-Irene Villa (ed.) 2023: Polarisierte Welten. Verhandlungen des 41. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie 2022.
(“Text as Data. Variable Extraction via LSTM Networks”)
2020
Hendrik Erz (2020). Künstliche Intelligenz und Daten: Eine Evaluation softwarebasierter militärischer Informationsgewinnung (Research Report No. 4). IFSH, Hamburg. (accessed 07.01.21)
(“Artificial Intelligence and data: An evaluation of software-based military intelligence.”)
Hendrik Erz (2020). Operative Porträts: eine Bildgeschichte der Identifizierbarkeit von Lavater bis Facebook. Von Roland Meyer. Review. Soziologiemagazin 2020, 75–81.
Hendrik Erz (2020). The Status Quo is a Dystopian Nightmare. engagée 9, 20–25.
2019
Hendrik Erz (2019). Neoliberalismus — Wie alles anfing: Das Walter Lippmann Kolloquium. Review. Soziologieblog. (accessed 10.23.19).
Andreas Schulz, Hendrik Erz, Veronika Riedl (2019). How to make a Soziologiemagazin. Soziologiemagazin 1/2019. (accessed 07.01.21)
2017
Hendrik Erz (2017). Zygmunt Bauman: Die Angst vor den anderen. Review. Widerspruch 70/2017, 164–168.

Invited Talks

2025
Vote Defection and Party Pressure in U.S. Congress: Evidence from a Century of Vote and Speech Behavior
IAS Annual Spring Retreat, Kolmården, Sweden
2024
Economic Policymaking in U.S. Congress
Institute for Social Science, Department for Computational Social Science
University of Stuttgart, Germany
Economic Policymaking in U.S. Congress
IAS Annual Spring Retreat, Kolmården, Sweden
2023
Polarization and Paradigm Shifts in US Congressional Economic Policymaking
IAS Text Analysis Research Group, Norrköping, Sweden
2022
Discursive Dynamics in Policymaking: Economic Policymaking in U.S. Congress
IAS Conference, Stockholm, Sweden
2022
Technological A11y: Zettlr Beyond the Code
Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe, Germany

Conference and Workshop Presentations

2025
Vote Defection and Party Power in U.S. Congress
Joint Spring Conference of the methods sections of DGS and AS
University of Leipzig, Germany
2024
Language Models from the Sweatshop? Helping Researchers Avoid Ethical and Legal Issues With Off-The-Shelf Software
Conference of the Nordic Sociological Association (NSA) 2024, Norrköping, Sweden (in session Pretrained models and sociology)
Policymaking in Times of Crisis: Discursive Dynamics in U.S. Congress, 1960-1990
Conference of the American Sociological Association (ASA) 2024, Montréal, Canada
Markets as actors: Congressional speech between regulation and market freedom
Conference of the International Network of Analytical Sociologists (INAS), Leipzig, Germany
Economic Policymaking in U.S. Congress (Lightning Talk)
Swedish Conference on Computational Social Science, Uppsala, Sweden
2023
Language Models from the Sweatshop? Towards Guidelines For CSS Researchers to Avoid Ethical and Legal Issues With Off-The-Shelf Software. (Poster)
International Conference on Computational Social Sciences (IC2S2), Copenhagen, Denmark
From Speeches to Bills: How do Discursive Dynamics Shape Policymaking in U.S. Congress?
Conference of the International Network of Analytical Sociologists (INAS), Princeton, United States
Taming Rogue Ethics: The Case for a Unified and Fair IRB Procedure
STS-hub.de Conference, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen, Germany
Disentangling the Discourse on U.S. Economic Policymaking
Textual Politics Conference, Sciences Po, Paris, France.
2022
Text als Daten: Extraktion von Variablen mittels LSTM-Netzwerken
Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie, Bielefeld, Germany.
Extracting Agency from Textual Data Using LSTM Networks
Conference of the International Network of Analytical Sociologists, Florence, Italy.
2019
From Arab Spring to Gilets Jaunes: Riots and the annihilation of legality
Historical Materialism Athens Conference, Greece.
2017
Terrorismus und der War on Terror
Master Thesis Presentation, Studentischer Soziologiekongress, TU Chemnitz, Germany.

Teaching

2025
Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS)
Lecture and workshop in ethics for CSS
Lecture and workshop in Computational Text Analysis
2022-2024
Digital Strategies for the Social Sciences
M.Sc. program; Teaching Assistant; Linköping University
2023
Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS)
Lecture and workshop in Computational Text Analysis
2021-2023
Logic of Social Inquiry
M.Sc. program; Teaching Assistant; Linköping University
2018-2019
Introduction to Political Science
B.A. program; Teacher; University of Bonn
2018
Scientific Writing
B.A. program; Teacher; University of Bonn
2018
Introduction to Karl Marx’ Capital (Reading Course)
B.A. program; Course Director; University of Bonn
2015
Tutorial: Methods for Quantitative Sociology
B.A. program; Teaching Assistant; University of Bonn

Service

Reviewer
Since 2025
Network Science
Since 2018
Soziologiemagazin
Editorial Board Member
2020-2024
Head of Editorial Board, Soziologiemagazin
Organization and Organizational Assistance
Since 2023
Swedish Interdisciplinary Research School in Computational Social Science (SIRCSS), Norrköping, Sweden (with PI Jacob Habinek)
Since 2022
Website administration; International Network of Analytical Sociologists (INAS)
2025
Program Chair, International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2), Norrköping
2025
Summer Instititute in Computational Social Science (SICSS), Norrköping, Sweden (with PI Jacob Habinek)
2024
Session Pretrained models and sociology: ethical, methodological, and theoretical considerations (at NSA 2024)
2023
Summer Instititute in Computational Social Science (SICSS), Norrköping, Sweden (with PI Jacob Habinek)
2022
IAS PhD Retreat, Norrköping, Sweden
2021-2022
IAS Salon (Institute Reading Group)
2021-2022
PhD Representative, Institute for Analytical Sociology
2016
Student Research Symposium, University of Bonn, Germany

Supervision

Co-Supervisor, M.Sc. thesis in CSS, Sophia Grill (2024)
Co-Supervisor, M.Sc. thesis in CSS, Yiqiu Wang (2023)
Co-Supervisor, M.Sc. thesis in CSS, Lijun Peng (2022)

Memberships

American Sociological Association (ASA);
International Network of Analytical Sociologists (INAS)

Referees

Prof. Dr. Marc Keuschnigg ()
Prof. Dr. Jacob Habinek ()
Prof. Dr. Étienne Ollion ()
Prof. Dr. Peter Hedström ()

Academic Software

Since 2017
Zettlr (Project Maintainer)
Since 2024
Pandoc (Contributor)

Languages

German (native), English (fluent, C1),
Swedish (Moderate, B1), French (Moderate, A2)

Programming Languages & Frameworks

Scientific
Python, R, Stata, matplotlib, numpy, pandas, PyTorch, Slurm (HPC)
Frontend
JavaScript/TypeScript, HTML/CSS, Vue.js
Backend
Node.js, PHP, Rust, C/C++, Bash/ZSH