Ema Kušen

PhD
Assistant Professor

Tel.: +43-1-31336-4451
Email: ema.kusen@wu.ac.at

Office: D2.2.040

Biography

Ema is a post doc researcher at the Faculty of Informatics, University of Vienna since June 2022 and a project staff member at the Institute for Information Systems and New Media, Vienna University of Economics and Business. She received her Bachelor degree in Informatics in 2009, as well as her Master degree in Informatics in 2011 from the University of Rijeka, Croatia. She is the holder of the Rector’s award and an Academic Excellence scholarship from the University of Rijeka. In 2014, she became a PhD candidate at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). Her research focused on the structural analysis of emotional messages sent over social media during crisis events where she proposed the concept of emotion-exchange motifs. She took a 17-month long maternity leave in 2019. In 2021, she received her PhD degree with honors. From March 2021 until June 2022 she worked as a post doc researcher at the Institute for Information Systems and New Media, Vienna University of Economics and Business. She received several awards for her research achievements and authored several journal publications, some of which are published in A-ranked journals, including Information Processing & Management, Computers in Human Behavior, and IEEE Internet Computing. She currently serves as a technical committee member for the Elsevier’s journal Online Social Networks and Media and a program chair for the International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk. Some of her research findings were published in reputable media outlets, such as Der Standard and Die Presse.

Research Interest

• Data science
• (Social) network analysis
• Information diffusion
• Structural analysis
• Network motifs
• Multiplex network modelling
• Emotion detection

Awards and Honors

• 2022 Best paper award (Grobelscheg, L.; Kušen, E. and Strembeck, M. (2022). Automated Narratives: On the Influence of Bots in Narratives during the 2020 Vienna Terror Attack. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk - COMPLEXIS, ISBN 978-989-758-565-4; ISSN 2184-5034, pages 15-25. DOI: 10.5220/0011034000003197)
• 2021 WU Award for Outstanding Research Achievements for E. Kusen and M. Strembeck: “Evacuate everyone south of that line: Analyzing structural communication aptterns during natural disasters” published in Journal of Computational Social Science
• 2021 WU Award for Outstanding Research Achievements for E. Kusen and M. Strembeck: “Emotional communication during crisis events: Mining structural OSN patterns” published in IEEE Internet Computing
• 2021 Best paper award (paper title: “Structural similarities of emotion-exchange networks: Evidence from 18 crisis events”), presented at the International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk (Complexis'21): track “Complexity in Social Sciences”
• 2021 WU Forschungsprämie für eine hervorragende Dissertation. PhD thesis title: “Emotion-exchange motifs: Unraveling Structural Patterns of User Interactions in Online Social Networks”
• 2020 WU Award for Outstanding Research Achievements for Kusen, E. and Strembeck, M. (2019) An analysis of emotion-exchange motifs in multiplex networks during emergency events. Applied Network Science 4(1).
• 2020 WU Award for Outstanding Research Achievement awarded for the paper “You talkin’ to me? Exploring Human/Bot Communication Patterns during Riot Events”, Information Processing and Management, 57(1).
• 2020 Besondere Forschungsleistungen des Departments (“You talkin’ to me? Exploring Human/Bot Communication Patterns during Riot Events. Information Processing & Management. 57 (1)”)
• 2018 Departmentspezifiche Leisungsprämierung (“Politics, Sentiments, and Misinformation: An Analysis of the Twitter Discussion on the 2016 Austria Presidential Elections”, published in: Online Social Networks and Media, Elsevier)
• 2018 Besondere Forschungsleistung (WU) for the publication “On the Influence of Emotional Valence Shifts on the Spread of Information in Social Networks, presented at the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining - ASONAM'17”
• Best paper award (paper title: “Why so emotional? An Analysis of emotional bot-generated content on Twitter”, presented at the International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk (Complexis'18): track “Complexity in Social Sciences”)
• High Potential Contact Weeks grant (Research Visit in Padua, Italy, February 2017)
• Erasmus scholarship for Study Exchange Program (academic year 2012/2013) - Karl Franzens University (Graz)
• Rector’s Award from University of Rijeka (academic year 2010/2011)
• Academic Excellence Scholarship from the University of Rijeka (academic year 2010/2011)

Publications

Journal Publications

• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. (2023) “Short- and long-term impact of psychological distance on human responses to a terror attack”, In: Online Social Networks and Media (OSNEM), Vol. 33, January 2023. [doi]
• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. (2023) “The Effects of Multiple Exposure to Highly Emotional Social Media Content During the Early Stages of the 2022 War in Ukraine”, In: Springer Nature Computer Science, Vol. 4, No. 5, September 2023. [doi]
• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. (2021) “Building blocks of communication networks in times of crises: Emotion-exchange motifs". Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 123. [doi]
• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. (2021) “Emotional Communication during Crisis Events: Mining Structural OSN Patterns". IEEE Internet Computing. [doi]
• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. (2020) “Evacuate everyone south of that line” Analyzing structural communication patterns during natural disasters. Journal of Computational Social Science (2020). [doi]
• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. (2020) “You talkin’ to me? Exploring Human/Bot Communication Patterns during Riot Events", Information Processing & Management, Volume 57, Issue 1, January 2020, 1–27. [doi]
• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. (2019) “Something draws near, I can feel it: An analysis of bot and human emotion-exchange patterns on Twitter", Online Social Networks and Media (Elsevier), Volume 10-11, pp. 1–17. [doi]
• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. (2019) “An Analysis of Emotion-exchange Motifs in Multiplex Networks during Emergency Events", Applied Network Science, Vol. 4, March 2019. [doi]
• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. (2018) Politics, sentiments, and misinformation: An analysis of the Twitter discussion on the 2016 Austrian Presidential Elections, Online Social Networks and Media (Elsevier), Vol. 5, pp. 37-50. [doi, pdf]
• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. (2016). A decade of security research in ubiquitous computing: results of a systematic literature review. International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, 12(2), pp 216-259. [doi]
• N. Hoić-Božić, M. Holenko Dlab, E. Kušen. (2013). A Blended Learning Model for a “Multimedia Systems” Course. International Journal of Learning Technology. 8(2), pp 169-185.
• E. Kušen, N. Hoić-Božić. In search of an open-source LMS solution for higher education using a criterion-based approach. International Journal of Learning Technology (IJLT). 7(2), pp 115-132.

Conference Papers

• K. Sliwa, E. Kušen, M. Strembeck (2023) An Analysis of Twitter Communities related to the 2022 War in Ukraine, In: Proc. of the 8th International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk (COMPLEXIS), Prague, Czech Republic, April 2023.
• L. Grobelscheg, E. Kušen, M. Strembeck (2023) Mainstream and Alternative Narratives in the Wake of Gun Shootings, In: Proc. of the 8th International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk (COMPLEXIS), Prague, Czech Republic, April 2023
• Ivanova, R. V., Kusen, E., & Sobernig, S. (2023). Examining the Intra-Location Differences Among Twitter Samples. In E. Kusen, & V. Chang (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk COMPLEXIS: April 22-23, 2023, in Prague, Czech Republic (Vol. 1, pp. 94-101). SciTePress. https://doi.org/10.5220/0011990600003485.
• Grobelscheg, L.; Sliwa, K.; Kušen, E.; M. Strembeck (2022): On the Dynamics of “Narratives of Crisis” during Terror Attacks, In: Proc. of the 9th International Conference on Social Networks Analysis, Management and Security (SNAMS), IEEE, Milan, Italy, November/December 2022.
• Grobelscheg, L.; Kušen, E. and Strembeck, M. (2022). Automated Narratives: On the Influence of Bots in Narratives during the 2020 Vienna Terror Attack. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk - COMPLEXIS, ISBN 978-989-758-565-4; ISSN 2184-5034, pages 15-25. DOI: 10.5220/0011034000003197 (best paper award).
• Kušen, E. and Strembeck, M. (2022). Dynamics of Personal Responses to Terror Attacks: A Temporal Network Analysis Perspective. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk - COMPLEXIS, ISBN 978-989-758-565-4; ISSN 2184-5034, pages 36-46. DOI: 10.5220/0011078100003197.
• M. Lindermayr, E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. “Stronger than hate”: On the dissemination of hate speech during the 2020 Vienna terrorist attack, International conference on Social Network Analysis Management and Security (SNAMS'21), Gandia, Spain, 6-9 December 2021.
• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. Structural similarities of emotion-exchange networks: Evidence from 18 crisis events. In: Proc. of the 6th International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk (Complexis'21). Volume 1: COMPLEXIS, ISBN 978-989-758-505-0, pages 25-36. [doi] (best paper award)
• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. Investigation of Emotion Exchange Motifs in Bot/Human Interactions during Riot Events. The Fifth International Conference on Social Networks Analysis, Management and Security (SNAMS-2018), Valencia, Spain, 15.10.-18.10.2018, pp. 19 - 26. [doi, pdf]
• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. Why so emotional? An Analysis of emotional bot-generated content on Twitter, In: Proc. of the 3rd International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk (Complexis'18), Madeira, Portugal, March 2018 (best paper award) [doi, pdf]
• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. On the Public Perception of Police Forces in Riot Events - The Role of Emotions in Three Major Social Networks During the 2017 G20 Riots, In: Proc. of the 3rd International Conference on Complexity, Future Information Systems and Risk (Complexis'18), Madeira, Portugal, March 2018. [doi, pdf]
• E. Kušen, G. Cascavilla, K. Figl, M. Conti, M. Strembeck. Identifying Emotions in Social Media: Comparison of Word-emotion lexicons, In: Proc. of the 4th International Symposium on Social Networks Analysis, Management and Security (SNAMS) (co-located with IEEE FiCloud), Prague, Czech Republic, August 2017. [doi, pdf]
• Kušen E., Strembeck M., Cascavilla G. and Conti, M. On the Influence of Emotional Valence Shifts on the Spread of Information in Social Networks, In: Proc. of the 9th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM), Sydney, Australia, July/August 2017. [doi, pdf]
• Kušen, E., Marinovic, M. (2013). An approach to Operations Research course in the curriculum for computer science students. International Scientific Colloquium: Mathematics teaching for the future, Osijek, March 2013, Pavlekovic, Margita, Kolar-Begovic, Zdenka, Kolar-Super, Ruzica, editor(s), pp 203-213.

Lecture Notes

• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck, M. Conti. (2019) “Emotional Valence Shifts and User Behavior on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube”. Lecture Notes in Social Networks, Editor: Kaya M., Alhajj. Switzerland: Springer, Cham. [doi, pdf]

Workshop Papers

• E. Kušen, M. Strembeck. On Message Exchange Motifs Emerging during Human/Bot Interactions in Multilayer Networks: The Case of Two Riot Events. IEEE/ACM First international workshop on Social human behavior Analysis through Online social networks and media, Barcelona, Spain, 28.08.-31.08.2018, pp. 1274-1279. [doi, pdf]
• E. Kušen, N. Hoic-Bozic. (2014). Use of New Technology in Higher Education: A Migration to a Cloud-Based Learning Platform. The 2nd International Workshop on Learning Technology for Education in Cloud, Springer Proceedings in Complexity 2014, pp 181-191
• N. Hoić-Božić, M. Holenko Dlab, E. Kušen. (2012). A Blended Learning Model for “Multimedia Systems” Course. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, Workshop on Learning Technology for Education in Cloud (LTEC'12). Uden, Lorna, Rodriguez, Emilio S. Corchado, De Paz Santana, Juan F., De la Prieta, Fernando, editor(s). Springer, pp 65-75.

Other (Pre-Prints)

• Kušen, E. and Strembeck, M. (2017) An Analysis of the Twitter Discussion on the 2016 Austrian Presidential Elections, In: The Computing Research Repository (CoRR), arXiv:1707.09939, July 2017. [source, pdf]
• Kušen E. and Strembeck, M. (2017) Security-related Research in Ubiquitous Computing - Results of a Systematic Literature Review, In: The Computing Research Repository (CoRR), arXiv:1701.00773, January 2017. [pdf]
• Kušen E. and Strembeck, M. (2016) “Protocol for a Systematic Literature Review on Security-related Research in Ubiquitous Computing”, CC BY 4.0, available at: https://epub.wu.ac.at/4826/