Hi, I’m Miriam!

I’m a postdoctoral researcher at LINK Lab at Northwestern University.

My expertise lies in developing computational approaches to operationalize and understand complex and potentially harmful phenomena, such as misinformation, violent language, and abuse online. I do this by applying Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyze large-scale text data, identify patterns, and uncover nuanced insights that inform interventions and policy-making.

I received my Ph.D. from Technical University of Munich, where I was advised by Jürgen Pfeffer (Computational Social Science Lab). I hold undergraduate degrees in Psychology, Political Science, and History, and a master’s degree in Criminology.

Updates

Dec 11, 2024
📄 Abstract accepted at the ECPR Workshop on Text-as-Data Analysis in Political Science with lead author Sophie Brandt.

Nov 14, 2024
🌴 I presented my recent paper on The Language of Trauma at EMNLP 2024 in Miami. Thanks to all of you who stopped by to discuss!

Nov 1, 2024
👩‍🎓 I started my new position as a postdoc at Northwestern University’s LINK Lab. Looking forward to working with Ágnes Horvát and her amazing team!

Oct 21, 2024
🎉 I DEFENDED MY PHD! #PhDone

Apr 23, 2024
🌎 Part 2/2 of my 2024 research stay series: Thanks to David Jurgens at University of Michigan School of Information’s Blablablab for welcoming me in Ann Arbor to work on automated detection of psychological trauma in text.

Feb 13, 2024
🌎 Arrived at University of Cambridge for part 1/2 of my 2024 research stay series. I’ll be working on LLMs for hate speech detection with Petre Breazu and Napoleon Katsos at the department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics.

Publications

• The Language of Trauma: Modeling Traumatic Event Descriptions Across Domains with Explainable AI
  Schirmer, M.; Leemann, L., Kasneci, G., Pfeffer, J., & Jurgens, D. (2024)
  Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP 2024, 13224–13242, Miami, Florida, USA. Association for Computational Linguistics.

• More Skin, More Likes! Measuring Child Exposure and User Engagement on TikTok
  Schirmer, M., Voggenreiter, A., & Pfeffer, J. (2024)
  arXiv preprint.

• Large Language Models and Thematic Analysis: Human-AI Synergy in Researching Hate Speech on Social Media
  Breazu, P., Schirmer, M., Hu, S., & Kastos, N. (2024)
  arXiv preprint.

• Investigating the Increase of Violent Speech in Incel Communities with Human-Guided GPT-4 Prompt Iteration
  Matter, D.*, Schirmer, M.*, Grinberg, N., & Pfeffer, J. (2024)
  *Both authors contributed equally to this research.
  Frontiers in Social Psychology, 2, 1383152.

• GENTRAC: A Tool for Tracing Trauma in Genocide and Mass Atrocity Court Transcripts
  Schirmer, M., Brechenmacher, C., & Pfeffer, J. (2024)
  Proceedings of the 2024 Joint International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC-COLING 2024), 7666–7671, Torino, Italy.

• Talking about Torture: A Novel Approach to the Mixed Methods Analysis of Genocide-Related Witness Statements in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal
  Schirmer, M., Pfeffer, J., & Hilbert, S. (2023)
  Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 0(0), 1–20.

• Uncovering Trauma in Genocide Tribunals: An NLP Approach Using the Genocide Transcript Corpus
  Schirmer, M., Nolasco, I. M. O., Mosca, E., Xu, S., & Pfeffer, J. (2023)
  Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law (ICAIL), 257–266.

• Personalized Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis (PETRA): A protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial to Test the Effect of a Psychological Intervention in Rheumatoid Arthritis
  Seizer, L., Huber, E., Schirmer, M., Hilbert, S., Wiest, E. M., & Schubert, C. (2023)
  Trials, 24, 743.

• A New Dataset for Topic-Based Paragraph Classification in Genocide-Related Court Transcripts
  Schirmer, M., Kruschwitz, U., & Donabauer, G. (2022)
  Proceedings of the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC), 504–4512.

Talks

• Schirmer, M. (2025, February – scheduled). Hatespeech in the Incelverse. Information Sciences Institute (ISI) Seminar, University of Southern California.

• Schirmer, M. (2024, May). Modeling Complex Phenomena Through Language: From Hate Speech to Innovation. Center for Science of Science & Innovation (CSSI), Kellog, Northwestern University.

• Schirmer, M. (2024, April). Natural Language Processing for Violence Research. Computational Social Science Seminar, School of Information, University of Michigan.

• Giovannini, L., & Schirmer, M. (2023, December). The Courtroom as Stage: Exploring the Performative Dimension of Genocide Trials. Cultural Data Analytics Conference (CUDAN). Tallinn, Estonia.

• Schirmer, M., Pfeffer, J., & Kirchmair, T. (2023, September). Analyzing and Visualizing Criminal Career Trajectories. European Conference on Social Networks (EUSN). Ljubljana, Slovenia.

• Schirmer, M., & Stewens, P. (2023, July). Natural Language Processing in Genocide Studies. 16th Biennial Meeting of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS). Barcelona, Spain.

• Schirmer, M., & Pfeffer, J. (2023, June). The Genocide Transcript Corpus Revisited. Conference of the Research Group International Relations of the German Political Science Association. Friedrichshafen, Germany.

• Schirmer, M. (2023, March). Mixed Methods in Genocide Research. German Digital Humanities Conference (DHd). Trier, Germany.

About Me

If I were to visit your city, you’d find me exploring a local bookshop for my next book club pick, then settling into a cozy coffee shop, or joining a salsa or bachata social.

I’m one of the deputy chairs at Genocide Alert, a German human rights organization that advocates for the effective prevention and punishment of grave human rights violations such as genocide and crimes against humanity.

My work and studies have been supported by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, the German Business Foundation, and the Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation.