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About Me
Hi, I'm Elisa!
My research lies at the intersection between Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Computational Social Science (CSS). I analyze social phenomena through the lens of language, with the goal to reduce inequalities. For example, I'm interested in studying the impact of AI in widening the socioeconomic gap across social strata and how we can develop fairer language technologies. I'm affiliated with the NLP north research unit at the IT University of Copenhagen and with the Pioneer Center for Artificial Intelligence, Denmark. Currently, I'm on a long-term visit (2 year) at MilaNLP (Bocconi University) working with Prof. Dirk Hovy
Previously, I completed my PhD at the IT University of Copenhagen and as an affiliated member of the MaiNLP research lab at the Center for Information and Language Processing (CIS) in Munich (LMU) under the supervision of Prof. Barbara Plank and Dr. Rob van der Goot. The focus of my PhD project was developing computation systems for Information Extraction with strong abilities to generalize over unseen data sources and label spaces. Specifically, I worked on cross-domain Relation Extraction. Before that, I worked in the field of CSS (hate speech and personality detection).
Recent Publications
The AI Gap: How Socioeconomic Status Affects Language Technology Interactions
Elisa Bassignana*, Amanda Cercas Curry*, Dirk Hovy In Proceedings of the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL 2025) (*): equal contribution Received Best Social Impact Award at ACL 2025
The Language of Attachment: Modeling Attachment Dynamics in Psychotherapy
Frederik Bredgaard, Martin Lund Trinhammer, Elisa Bassignana Pre-print
DaKultur: Evaluating the Cultural Awareness of Language Models for Danish with Native Speakers
Max Müller-Eberstein, Mike Zhang, Elisa Bassignana, Rob van der Goot In Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Cross-Cultural Considerations in NLP (C3NLP 2025)
Grants and Awards
Best Social Impact Paper Award - 200 USD (2025)
Best social impact paper award at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics.
Villum International Postdoc Grant - 2.4M DKK (2023)
Three year postdoc at the IT University of Copenhagen, including a two years stay at Bocconi University (Italy).
Outstanding Paper Award - 2,000 USD (2022)
Outstanding paper award at the Machine Learning Evaluation Standards workshop at ICLR.
Pietro Torasso Award - 1,500 EUR (2020)
Best M.Sc. thesis in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Turin defended in 2020.
Erasmus+ Scholarship - 2,300 EUR (2020)
Sole recipient for an exchange semester at the University of Groningen.
Teaching
Reflections on AI for Communication - Guest Lecturer
Università della Svizzera italiana (2025)
Introduction to Natural Language Processing and Deep Learning - Lecturer
IT University of Copenhagen (2023, 2022)
Vertiefung der Grundlagen der Computerlinguistik - Guest lecturer
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2024, 2023, 2022)
Seminars in Data Science - Lecturer and examiner
IT University of Copenhagen (2022)
Introduction to Natural Language Processing and Deep Learning - Lecturer and senior TA
IT University of Copenhagen (2021)