Johanna Einsiedler

Postdoctoral researcher at the Digital Humanities Lab, University of Basel, and the Center for Social Data Science, University of Copenhagen.

Basel & Copenhagen AI for social science Uncertainty-aware ML

Hi!

My name is Johanna. I am currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Digital Humanities Lab at the University of Basel and the Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science at the University of Copenhagen.

From February 2024 to May 2024 I have been a visiting researcher at the Institute for Data, Systems and Society at MIT and from October 2024 to February 2025 at ETH Zurich at the Law, Economics and Data Science Group.

Currently, I am mostly interested in ways that AI can help us to do science better, meaningful application of machine learning in the social sciences and methods for estimating uncertainty in ML predictions.

Outside of work, I am most often found on a volleyball court, bike trail, or ski slope - or indoors in my kitchen testing experimental recipes and trying to convince our 3D printer to cooperate.

Research

Research Interests

I am interested in

using insights from network science to answer social science questions
testing the replicability and generalizability of data driven social science research
exploring how we can use AI tools to speed up and improve research & science

Ongoing Work

Einsiedler, J., Cummins, J., Jankowsky, K., Hernes, A., Schroeders, U., Lavelle-Hill, R. Assessing the Potential for Automated Article Coding and Data Extraction in the Social Sciences. [Preregistration Stage 1] [GitHub Repository]
Einsiedler, J., Appel, M., Bergmann, M., Lilleholt, L., Zettler, I., Lavelle-Hill, R. Psychology of Predictability: Is individual predictability trait-like?
Einsiedler, J., Harmon, N., Dreyer Lassen, D., Bjerre-Nielsen, A. Engineering Social Networks: How Initial Group Assignment Shapes Student Social Interactions.

Published

Cremers, J., Kohler, B., Frank Maier, B., Nymann Eriksen, S., Einsiedler, J., Kølby Christensen, F., Lehmann, S., Dreyer Lassen, D., Hvas Mortensen, L., Bjerre-Nielsen, A. 2025. Unveiling the social fabric through a temporal, nation-scale social network and its characteristics. Nature Scientific Reports, 15, 18383.
Einsiedler, J., Lilleholt, L., Hvast Mortensen, L., Schild, C., Zettler, I. 2025. Nonresponse at three stages in personality research: Insights based on (Danish) register data of a representative potential participant pool. European Journal of Personality, 0(0).
Teutloff, O., Einsiedler, J., Kässi, O., Braesmann, F., Mishkin, P., del Rio-Chanona, M. 2025. Winners and losers of generative AI: Early evidence of shifts in freelancer demand. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 235.
Einsiedler, J., Cheng, Y., Papst, F., Saukh, O. 2021. Transferable Models to Understand the Impact of Lockdown Measures on Local Air Quality. 17th International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems (DCOSS), 2021.

Not Peer Reviewed

Trial, H., Einsiedler, J. 2025. The future of research dissemination: Innovation in publishing formats. MIT Science Policy Review.
Teutloff, O., Einsiedler, J., Søndergaard Møller, F. 2024. Large Language Models and the Danish Labour Market. Statistics Denmark Analysis.

Under Review

del Rio-Chanona, M., Einsiedler, J. Self-Building Benchmarks: Using AI generated exams to understand LLM work capabilities. Brookings Working Paper.
Ullrich, S., Einsiedler, J. Digital Actor Categorization: Typologies and Computational Techniques for Analyzing Online Publics. Submitted to Social Science Computer Review. [Shared first authorship]
De Hesselle, L. C., Einsiedler, J., Teutloff, O., Lilleholt, L., Hilbig, B., Moshagen, M., Zettler, I. Aversive personality and the RIASEC dimensions: Cross-national insights from self-reported interests and officially registered jobs. Submitted to the Journal of Personnel Psychology.
Einsiedler, J., Ledebur, K., Klimek, P., Hvas Mortensen, L. Generalizing Multimorbidity Models Across Countries: A Comparative Study of Austria and Denmark. Submitted to NPJ Digital Medicine.

Teaching Experience

Courses & Supervision

Fall 2025. Seminar on Generative AI in Social Science Research. [Open Course Materials] Sole course responsible, University of Basel. Master-level course covering developments in using large language models across the research pipeline—from hypothesis generation and synthetic survey respondents to causal inference assistants and text analysis—paired with critical discussion of methodological potential and ethical challenges.
2022, 2023. Master thesis supervision, Social Data Science, University of Copenhagen. Projects included: Externalities of including special education students in regular classrooms; Exploring Danish court rulings with quantitative methods; Rlasso-Models for high-dimensional inference in Python; Predicting stadium attendance in Danish professional football; Identifying whether LLMs can capture non-dominant cultures in India.
Fall 2023. Elementary Social Data Science. Teaching Assistant, University of Copenhagen. [Course Description]
Fall 2023. Introduction Week Social Data Science Masters. Organiser, University of Copenhagen.
Fall 2020. Fundamentals of Business Administration. Adjunct lecturer, Modul University Vienna.

Projects

I wrote some code that makes it easy to compare a set of latex files and mark all changes in blue.
I have engaged in an art x science project called "Do algorithms care?" which has been exhibited at the Ars Electronica Festival 2024.
I have built a prototype for a tool to create interactive meta-studies and wrote a blogpost about the potential of interactive meta-studies.
For over two years I have been writing a bi-weekly newsletter called CuratedCuriosity about technology, science and everything else that gets me curious.
I have written a Python package for Latent Profile Analysis (available via PyPI).
I have founded and co-hosted a podcast called "The PhD Pod"; a podcast where we explore science topics and chat about PhD life. My favourite episode is about trust in medicine and challenges in fieldwork.
I have made an effectiveness analysis of charities in Austria (2021).

Presentations

Fall 2025. What Can We Automate (and How Well)? A Preregistered Evaluation of Open-Source LLM Pipelines for Automated Systematic Reviews. Paul Meehl Graduate School Meta Research Symposium 2025.
Spring 2024. Engineering Social Groups: How Organizational Group Assignment Affects the Social Fabric. Ninth Annual Conference on Network Science and Economics.
Spring 2024. Impact of ChatGPT on Online Labour Markets. AICE – AI, Cognition, and the Economy | Spring 2024 Workshop, Microsoft Research.
Summer 2023. Persistence of Social Ties from Informal Group Interactions. International Conference for Computational Social Science (IC2S2) 2023.
Summer 2023. Generalizability of Multimorbidity Patterns: A Cross Country Comparison. NetSci 2023.

Get in touch

Always happy to chat - don't hesitate to reach out! johanna.einsiedler[at]unibas.ch