Facing AI: Research Opportunities and Challenges in Today’s Social Sciences
10:00–17:00, 18–19 December 2025
Location: Seminar Room, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford
Dates: 18–19 December 2025
Organisers: Fanqi Zeng (University of Oxford), Xiaoguang Fan (Zhejiang University)
This in-person workshop will feature 14 presentations from scholars across various social science disciplines. Please register to attend here.
Programme
Day 1 - Thursday 18th December
Time
Session
Speaker
09:30 – 10:00
Arrival & Coffee
10:00 – 10:10
Welcome & Opening
Colin Mills, University of Oxford
SESSION 1 — Chair: Fanqi Zeng
10:10 – 10:45
AI's Impact on the Research Paradigm of Sociology
Xiaobin He, Tsinghua University
10:45 – 11:20
Opportunities and Limitations of Generative AI for Social Science
Michael Heseltine, University of Oxford
11:20 – 11:40
Break
11:40 – 12:15
Embracing the Large Language Model Era: Computational Sociology and the New Synthesis
Xiaoguang Fan, Zhejiang University
12:15 – 14:15
Lunch
SESSION 2 — Chair: Chao-Yo Cheng
14:15 – 14:50
How AI Empowers Social Surveys: Opportunities and Limitations
Zhiming Sheng, Shanghai University
14:50 – 15:25
Beyond Academic Nationalism: Forging China's Autonomous Knowledge System in the AI Era
Jie Huang, Nanjing University
15:25 – 15:45
Break
SESSION 3 — Chair: Michael Heseltine
15:45 – 16:20
Can AI Capture Cultural Differences? Testing the Performance of LLMs on Detecting Collectivism in China
Chao-Yo Cheng, Birkbeck, University
of London
16:20 – 16:55
Using AI to Model Future Societal Instability
Fanqi Zeng, University of Oxford
Day 2 - Friday 19th December
Time
Session
Speaker
09:30 – 10:00
Arrival & Coffee
SESSION 4 — Chair: Pinghan Liang
10:00 – 10:35
A Tutorial on Agent-Based Models: from NetLogo to Julia programming
José Ignacio Carrasco, University of Oxford
10:35 – 11:10
Large Language Models for Visual Content Analysis in Political Contexts: Exploring Scalability,
Bias, and Mitigation Strategies
Linda Li, LSE
11:10 – 11:30
Break
11:30 – 12:05
Great Expectations: Policymakers' Adolescent Experience and Policy Decision
Pinghan Liang, Sun Yat-Sen University
12:05 – 13:20
Lunch
SESSION 5 — Chair: Xiaobin He
13:20 – 14:20
Title TBC
Charles Rahal, University of Oxford
14:20 – 14:40
Break
SESSION 6 — Chair: Zhiming Sheng
14:40 – 15:15
Modelling the Involution-Cooperation-Lying Flat Game with Large Language Models
Chaocheng He, Wuhan University
15:15 – 15:50
Imagining New Forms of Belonging with AI — A Socio-Technical Design
Yao Xiao, Imperial College
15:50 – 16:25
Using LLMs to Measure the Ideological Orientation of Academic Social Science Research 1960 – 2024
