Are you visiting #ceecon26 this week? Our PI Franziska Keller will argue that Europe plays a more central role in the #Russia expert community and #network than among #ChinaWatchers. Make sure to drop by and conncect! ceecon.de/en/program/r... @dgoberlin.bsky.social @unibe.ch @snf-fns.ch

Planning meeting for our 2nd year: from papers, milestones (launching our panel survey) to conferences (organizing a #polnet #LLM workshop for @epssnet.bsky.social), we mapped it all out in this timeline. Stay tuned for details and calls for participation.

How do networks of informants and experts shape our knowledge of the world? We held a Full Paper Panel at the American Political Science Association apsa.bsky.social Annual Meeting in Boston. 👇

APSA (@apsa.bsky.social)

The American Political Science Association (APSA) is the leading professional organization for the study of political science. www.apsanet.org

apsa.bsky.social

What does the new academic year bring for our project? Last Week we held a kick-off meeting to further plan our research: We will launch our panel survey and start extracting social media data to further detect networks among China and Russia experts.

Who are the Russia and China experts? At the @asanews.bsky.social Annual Conference #ASA2026 in #NewYork we got the chance to present the first findings from our autpol project with Arthur McFarlane and Michael Rochlitz.👇

📢 We’re happy to announce that we managed to organize not just one but two China-themed panels at the epssnet.bsky.social 2026 Annual Conference in Belfast! If you’re at EPSS, join us back-to-back on Friday, June 19th, and learn more about the exiting China research! 📢

EPSS (@epssnet.bsky.social)

The European Political Science Society: the not-for-profit professional association for political science in Europe and beyond https://epssnet.org/

epssnet.bsky.social

Meet the people behind the project: Sophia Lindenmann studies Eastern European Studies and German Language and Literature. She is a student assistant at the University of Bern and is intrested in examining how knowledge about authoritarian regimes is produced and received.

Meet the people behind the project: Linus Walpen is a student assistant at the University of Bern. He studies Eastern European Studies and History. With his journalistic background, he is especially intrested in how information about regimes is shared.

Meet the people behind the project: Ivan Fomichev is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bern. He studies how political information shapes citizens’ behavior and attitudes in authoritarian regimes, with a focus on Russia.

Find out here what happened on the fourth and last day of our @ecpr.bsky.social joint session workshop on #LLMs and #politicalnetworks:

We would like to thank the sponsors of our @ecpr.bsky.social #jointsession #workshop: thanks to the generous funding of the University of Bern's Digitalization Commission and the @valpop-project.bsky.social, we could offer travel stipends to early career scholars from Asia and the Americas.

Recap of the third day of our ecpr.bsky.social joint session workshop on #LLMs and #politicalnetworks:

It's a wrap! We ended our @ecpr.bsky.social #JointSession workshop on using #LLMs to extract #politicalnetworks in the #Bergisel SKY restaurant on top of the iconic ski jump tower. Thank you all for attending and presenting your ideas, and all the valuable feedback and suggestions!

Yesterday was the second day of our @ecpr.bsky.social joint session workshop on #LLMs and #politicalnetworks, again with a marvelous view. #ecprjs26 Here is a recap of yesterday’s highlights:

Yesterday, our @ecpr.bsky.social joint session workshop on #LLMs and #politicalnetworks started. #ecprjs26 Here is a recap of the first day:

📢Exciting news: The program for our workshop at the @ECPR #JointSessions in Austria on how to use Large Language Models (LLM) to gather and analyse political elite networks is complete! 📢Check out our website: www.autpol.net/workshop

Meet the people behind the project: Franziska Barbara Keller, assistant professor at the University of Bern, is the principal investigator of our project. She specializes in comparative politics, political communication, and social network analysis, with a focus on China.

📢 Exciting news: Our Workshop at the @ecpr.bsky.social #JointSessions in Innsbruck on how to use Large Language Models (LLM) to gather and analyse political elite networks got accepted!📢 Check out our website for relevant materials and our mailing list: www.autpol.net

Our Paper "China Watchers" now officially appeared in the latest issue of PS Political Sciene & Politics (Volume 59 - Issue 1). If you have not read it already: doi.org/10.1017/S104...

expertsurvey.bsky.social@expertsurvey.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Who are the experts who explain China to us? We’ve spent the last five years asking China experts to nominate other China experts until we had gathered more than 2000 individuals across the world and in a variety of professions: doi.org/10.1017/S104...

Call for Papers: Do you study political networks and use AI-tools to gather the necessary data? Join our workshop in Innsbruck, April 7-10, 2026, and discuss your approach and findings with like-minded peers! Deadline for submissions is 10th of december. www.autpol.net/workshop

⏰Reminder: the deadline for submissions is December 10th - submit now!

@fbkeller.bsky.social · 11mo ago

📢 Do you study political #networks and use #AI-tools to gather the necessary data? Join our workshop at the #ECPRJointSessions in #Innsbruck, Austria, April 7-10, 2026, and discuss your approach and findings with like-minded peers! 📢 @ecpr.bsky.social For more information: www.autpol.net/workshop

Is there a gendergap among #China experts? This question arose as we collected our list of over 2000 China experts using a snowballing nomination process. Read our #gender breakdown to find out: www.autpol.net/ps-china-wat...

With Ho-fung Hung and @profyangzhang.bsky.social, I had the pleasure of discussing David McCourt's latest book at the @socscihistory.bsky.social conference at the #PalmerHouse (flashback to @mpsa.bsky.social times) in #Chicago. Highly recommended for anyone interested in #Russia or #China experts!

The End of Engagement: America's China and Russia Experts and U.S. Strategy Since 1989

The End of Engagement: America's China and Russia Experts and U.S. Strategy Since 1989 [McCourt, David M.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The End of Engagement: America's China and Russia Experts and U.S. Strategy Since 1989

amazon.com

Who are the experts informing us and our governments about Chinese politics? Happy to see our article presenting the network structure of a snowball sample of experts on Chinese politics published today: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

www.cambridge.org/core/journal... Great to see the first paper from this side project out in PS. I’m grateful to have had the chance to work with Franziska and Jos.

Check out PS's latest article by @fbkeller.bsky.social and @expertsurvey.bsky.social which highlights that while there is a diverse & global community of experts on Chinese politics, it is still dominated by US-based Academics. Check it out here: doi.org/10.1017/S104... #polisky #academisky

📢 Do you study political #networks and use #AI-tools to gather the necessary data? Join our workshop at the #ECPRJointSessions in #Innsbruck, Austria, April 7-10, 2026, and discuss your approach and findings with like-minded peers! 📢 @ecpr.bsky.social For more information: www.autpol.net/workshop

Who are the experts who explain China to us? We’ve spent the last five years asking China experts to nominate other China experts until we had gathered more than 2000 individuals across the world and in a variety of professions: doi.org/10.1017/S104...

Are you curious about what’s going on behind closed doors among the most powerful people in China and Russia? So do we! Our project examines how our knowledge of politics in authoritarian regimes is generated – and what role country experts play: www.autpol.net