Catarina Pereira
PhD Candidate in Political Science #politicalbehavior #rhetoric #computationalsocialscience
My research examines how rhetoric and communication technologies reshape democracy.
I begin by isolating the democratic consequences of rhetoric, showing how styles like populism and technocracy shape voter attachments beyond policy content. This extends models of political choice by adding a rhetorical dimension.
I developed a new computational tool to detect and track bias in political text, extending the deductive tools with an inductive approach.
Most recently, I explore political epistemology in the digital age, analyzing how conversational AI structures knowledge, trust, and disagreement.
Across these strands, my work maps how rhetoric, algorithms, and AI transform the conditions of pluralist democracy.
My PhD is supported by a Swiss National Foundation project on large scale online deliberation.
You can view my CV updated on May 2025 here
Table of Contents
- Publications
- Grants
- Teaching
- Selected Voluntary Work
- Research Assistant Work
- Education
- Experience
- Data and Resources
Publications
Published Papers
- How to measure political polarization in text-as-data? A scoping review of computational social science approaches - Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 2024. Full View
Working Papers
- When Style Becomes Substance: The Electoral Effects of Anti-Pluralistic Rhetoric - C.Pereira, Presented at EPSA and APSA, 2024, 2025.
- Beyond Deductive Approaches: Automated Discovery of Bias Patterns in Political Discourse - C.Pereira,C.Marangon, Presented at CIS Zurichberg colloquium 2025, TADA 2025, Monash-Paris-Warwick-Zurich-CEPR Text-As-Data Workshop 2025.
- Political Epistemology in Conversational AI - C.Pereira
Grants
- 5 000 CHF: Funding from UZH for a Courses Program in Bocconi University,2025: Advanced Microeconomics and Game Theory courses
- 8 000 CHF: Funding from CIS (UZH + ETH) for Gender Bias Detector, 2024: working paper with Claudia Marangon (ETH)
- 5 000 CHF: Computational Methods Working Group, 2023 CMWG
Teaching
Graduate Level
- Deep Learning For Social Sciences: Teaching Assistant with Prof. Dr. Marco Steenbergen: 2023 2024 [2025]
- Deep Learning For Text and Vision: Teaching Assistant with Prof. Dr. Marco Steenbergen: ESSEX Summer School 2024 [2025]
Ungraduate Level
- Why people don’t vote? Understanding the void: Seminar Syllabus - BA 2024. Access
- Computational Approach to Deliberation: Co-Teaching with Valeria Vuk; Seminar Syllabus - BA 2023. Access
Supervison
- BA Thesis Supervision 2025: Lea Schubarth
Selected Voluntary Work
- European Network Conference 2024: Organizing Committe. Website
- Computational Methods Working Group: Responsible for maintaining the group’s website and organizing workshops CMWG
Research Assistant Work
- Columbia University: Research Assistant for Andreas Wimmer and Prerna Singh (2024-2025)
Education
- PhD in Political Science, University of Zurich, 2022 (Sept) - 2025 (Nov) Swiss National Foundation Project
- Master’s in International Studies, ISCTE - Portugal, 2020-2022
- Master’s in Biomedical Engineering, University Twente - Netherlands, 2014-2016
- Bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering, IST - Portugal, 2012-2014
Experience
- Account Manager, Microsoft - Portugal, 2020-2022
- Invited Lecturer of Machine Learning, ISEG - Portugal, 2020-2022
- Data Scientist, Microsoft - EMEA (Spain Based), 2016 - 2020
Data and Resources
Datasets
- Text Dataset: Parliamentary Speeches in the UK House of Commons from 2009-2019 (Populim and Technocracy components score per sentence ). Download
- Text Dataset: Congress Speeches in the US House of Congress from 1960-2014 (feminine and masculine narratives). Download