Dra. Gualda Caballero, Estrella. Directora del Grupo de Investigación.

Dr. Estrella Gualda, Full Professor of Sociology at the University of Huelva (Spain) and Full Member of the Ibero-American Academy of La Rábida in Huelva, Spain, since 2021. She holds  a  PhD  in Sociology  and  a  Master of Arts in  Political  Science and  Sociology  from  the  Complutense University of Madrid (Spain), and has been president of the Andalusian Sociology Association (2018-2022) and vice president (2014-2018).

She develops her work at the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Public Health where is Director of the Social Studies and Social Intervention  Research Centre, ESEIS, and is a founding member of the Applied Computational Social Sciences Lab, CISCOA-Lab. She is also a member of the management team of the COIDESO Research Centre at the University of Huelva.

In Italy, she is a founder member of the Narratives & Social Changes – International Research Group, NaSC-IRG, an Associate Researcher of the International Lab for Innovative Social Research, ILIS, and a founder member of the Applied Computational Social Sciences Lab, CISCOA-Lab. In past times, she has also been a member of the Scientific Council at the Research Centre for Spatial and Organisational Dynamics at the University of Algarve (Faro, Portugal).

She has held Visiting Senior Fellowships at the University of Salerno (2024), and at the London School of Economics and Political Science, based at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights (UK, 2017); a Visiting Scholar at Princeton University (USA, 2011, 2006), Arizona State University (USA, 2017, 2008, 2002), and Augsburg University (Germany, 1999).

She has been a member of the Management Committe (Workgroup: Social Media) in the COST Action: Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories (COMPACT), CA COST Action CA15101 (2016-2020) funded by the European Union Framework Programme Horizon 2020, coordinated by the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (Alemania), and integrated by 33 countries. She was involved in other international projects such as DIVERSE: Diversity improvement as a viable enrichment resource for society and economy (Ref. HOME/201213/EIFX/CA/CFP4000004248), funded by the EC Home Affairs.

She has received the First Prize for European Territorial Cooperation and Neighborhood: Research Modality (2012), awarded by the Junta de Andalucía and the European Regional Development Fund Operational Program for Andalusia 2007-2013; and the Best Conference Paper award for "Refugee Crisis in Twitter: Diversity of Discourses at a European Crossroad" (2016, co-authored, Interdisciplinarity in Human and Social Sciences International Congress). She has received two Quality Mentions (2013) from the Andalusian Sociology Association for two scientific articles published in JCR journals. Her project on "Conspiracy Theory and Misinformation" won a competition to conduct a survey within the framework of the Citizen Panel for Social Research in Andalusia of the IESA-CSIC (http://www.iesa.csic.es/blog/?p=2435, PIE 201710E018), leading to significant publications in Nature Human Behaviour, Political Psychology, Communication and Society, and the Spanish Journal of Sociological Research (REIS), among others.

She has extensive experience leading research projects, contracts, and agreements. She has participated in 28 research projects funded through competitive calls (international, national, and regional). She has served as principal investigator in 18 of them, principal investigator in Spain in 5 international projects, and a research team member in 5 others. She has also participated in 25 research contracts/agreements, serving as principal investigator in 17 of them, co-PI in 4, and a research team member in 3 others.

Current Interests:

Interested in advances in research methods, techniques, and software for the Social Sciences, Dr. Gualda has had a particular interest in transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches since the beginning of her career, having conducted research with national and international scientists from other disciplines in the Social Sciences, Humanities, Health Sciences, Engineering and Computing Science. Her most recent scientific contributions are related to the COVID-19 pandemic, computational sociology, big data, social media, conspiracy theories, and online hate speech while maintaining long-standing lines of work such as the sociology of migrations, minorities, and cross-border cooperation (linked to the study of social capital and networks). There is a connection in her research between several of these lines.

She is a member of the Distinguished National (and Andalusian) College of Doctors and Graduates in Political Science and Sociology (since 1990) and a member of the Spanish Federation of Sociology (since 1999, http://www.fes-web.org/), as well as the Andalusian Sociological Association. She is currently a member of the Governing Council and the Research Commission of the University of Huelva and has been a member of the Andalusian Experts Group for developing the Andalusian R&D&I Strategy - EIDIA 2021-2027. She has been an expert evaluator of six-year knowledge transfer periods (CNEAI-ANECA). She has evaluated ANEP projects, R&D projects of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, R&D projects of the BBVA Foundation, projects of the Andalusian Public Foundation Center for Andalusian Studies, and various universities. She has been part of the juries or panels for Ford Apadrina scholarships, Andalusia Migration Awards, Quality Mentions of the Andalusian Sociology Association, and awards for Master's and Doctoral theses of the International University of Andalusia, among others. She has been part of or is part of various editorial boards or scientific committees of scientific journals such as REIS, Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas; RIS-Revista Internacional de Sociología; Migraciones Internacionales del Colegio de la Frontera Norte, UNAM, México; Redes. Revista Hispana para el Análisis de las Redes Sociales; Revista Erebea. Revista de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales; RIEM. Revista Internacional de Estudios Migratorios; Revista CentrA de Ciencias Sociales, among others.

Between 2002 and 2017, she coordinated several Doctoral Programs, an Official Postgraduate Program, and an Official Master's Program (all three Interuniversity: Huelva, Almería, and Granada) with a Quality Mention. Among her teaching activities, she has supervised 8 doctoral theses, 6 of which obtained the European International Mention, 5 of which were in a doctoral program with a Quality Mention (MCD2006-00469), one of which obtained the Extraordinary Doctoral Award at the UHU and another an award from the Andalusian Statistical Institute. Two other doctoral theses received awards for presented communications derived from the thesis. After completing their doctoral theses, all her students work in the public or private sector in Spain or abroad. One of her last doctoral candidates is enjoying a "Juan de la Cierva" postdoctoral grant. She is currently supervising six theses in the field of Computational Sociology.

Selected publications:

Mata, J., Gualda, E., Pachón Álvarez, V. P., Rebollo-Díaz, C., & Domínguez-Olmedo, J. L. (2025). Deep Learning Approaches for Identifying Anti-Refugee Speech in Spanish Texts (1.0). [Preprints] Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14797058 y SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5122333

Mata-Vázquez, J., Pachón-Álvarez, V., Gualda, E., Araujo-Hernández, M. and García-Navarro, E.B. (2023). "Automatic Detection in Twitter of Non-Traumatic Grief Due to Deaths by COVID-19: A Deep Learning Approach," IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 143402-143416. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3343149

Azevedo, F., Pavlović, T., Rêgo, G. G. d., Ay, F. C., Gjoneska, B., Etienne, T.,…, Gualda, E., ..., Sampaio, W. M. (2023). Social and moral psychology of COVID-19 across 69 countries (reference number: SDATA-22-00565). Nature Scientific Data.  

Gualda, E. y Ibáñez Meseguer, J. (2023). "Diversity of Collective Memories and Identification Processes on Monuments: The Columbus Monument in Huelva, Spain, as a Case Study" (págs.37 - 54). Pocecco, A., Gualda, E., Mangone, E. (eds.) (2023). Collective Memory Narratives in Contemporary Culture. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41921-8 

Gualda, E.; Taboada, A. y Rebollo, C. (2023). “Big data y ciencias sociales: Una mirada comparativa a las publicaciones de  antropología, sociología y trabajo social”. Gazeta de antropología, 39, 1, pp.1-22. https://digibug.ugr.es/handle/10481/79779. https://doi.org/10.30827/Digibug.79779   

Pavlović, T.; Azevedo, F.;  De, K.;... Gualda, E.;...; Van Bavel, J. (2022). Predicting attitudinal and behavioral responses to COVID-19 pandemic using machine learning, PNAS Nexus, Volume 1, Issue 3, July 2022, , https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac093.

Van Bavel, J.J., Cichocka, A.,… Gualda, E… Capraro, V. et al. (2022). National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic. Nature Communication, 13, 517. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27668-9; pre-print: https://psyarxiv.com/ydt95/. 

Imhoff, R.; Zimmer, F. …. Gualda, E. … Van Prooijen, J-W (2022). Conspiracy Mentality and Political Orientation across 26 countries, Nature Human Behaviour, 17 January. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01258-7. 

Gualda, E. (2022). Social big data, sociología y ciencias sociales computacionales. Empiria. Revista De metodología De Ciencias Sociales, (53), 147–177. https://doi.org/10.5944/empiria.53.2022.32631 

Gualda, E.; Krouwel, A.; Palacios-Gálvez, M.; Morales-Marente, E.; Rodríguez-Pascual, I.; García-Navarro E.B. (2021). “Social Distancing and COVID-19: Factors Associated With Compliance With Social Distancing Norms in Spain”. Frontiers in Psychology.  12:727225. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.727225/full 

Gualda, E. (2021). “Altruism, Solidarity and Responsibility from a Committed Sociology: Contributions to Society”. The American Sociologist (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-021-09504-1; https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12108-021-09504-1; http://rabida.uhu.es/dspace/handle/10272/20280

Rodríguez Pascual, I.; Gualda, E.; Morales Marente, E. y Palacios Gálvez, M. (2021): “Is the Use of Digital Social Networks Associated with Conspiracy Theories? Evidence from Spain’s Andalusian Society” Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, nº 173, pp. 101-120. http://dx.doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.173.101. http://www.reis.cis.es/REIS/PDF/REIS_173_06_ENG1607000114017.pdf

Gualda, E.; Checa, J.C.; de Miguel, V. y Soriano, R. (2022). Opiniones y actitudes sobre la inmigración en Andalucía. Fundación Pública Centro de Estudios Andaluces, Consejería de Presidencia. 

Gualda, E. (2021). “Ni de carne ni de pescao”: Experiencias de discriminación y auto-identificación nacional de hijos e hijas de inmigrantes en España”. En Aparicio, R. y Portes, A. (Eds.): Los nuevos españoles. La incorporación de los hijos de inmigrantes. Berraterra. Próximamente.

Arenas-Hidalgo, N. and Gualda, E. (Editors) (2022). Conspiracy Theories, fake news and disinformation in social networks. Universidad de Huelva. Próximamente. 

Adam-Troian, J... Gualda, E. … & van Prooijen, J.W. (2020). Investigating the links Between Cultural Values and Belief in Conspiracy Theories: the Key Roles of Collectivism and Masculinity”. Political Psichology. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pops.12716

Martinez-Brawley, E. & Gualda, E. (2020). Transnational Social Implications of the Use of the “War metaphor" Concerning Coronavirus: A Birds' Eye View. Culture e Studi del Sociale. Vol 5 No 1, 259-272 (http://www.cussoc.it/index.php/journal/article/view/133). [ISSN: 2531-3975].

Gualda, E, (2020). “Social network analysis, social big data and conspiracy theories”. Butter, M. & Knight, P. (Ed.): Handbook of Conspiracy Theories. London: Routledge. En https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Conspiracy-Theories-1st-Edition/Butter-Knight/p/book/9780815361749.

Gualda, E. y Rebollo, C. (2020): “Big data y Twitter para el estudio de procesos migratorios: Métodos, técnicas de investigación y software”. Empiria. Revista de metodología en ciencias sociales, 46, 147-177 [ISSN: 1139-5737].  En http://revistas.uned.es/index.php/empiria/article/view/26970; DOI: https://doi.org/10.5944/empiria.46.2020.26970.

Gualda, E. (2021). "Metaphors of invasion: Imagining Europe as endangered by Islamization”, in Önnefors, A. & Krouwel, A. (eds.). Europe: Continent of Conspiracies. Conspiracy Theories in and about Europe. London: Routledge, pp.54-75.

Gualda, E. (2020). “Social network analysis, social big data and conspiracy theories”. Butter, M. & Knight, P. (Ed.): Handbook of Conspiracy Theories. London: Routledge. En https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Conspiracy-Theories-1st-Edition/Butter-Knight/p/book/9780815361749, 135-147 [ISBN: 9780815361749].

Gualda, E. y Rúas, J. (2019): “Conspiracy theories, credibility and trust in information”/ “Teorías de la conspiración, credibilidad y confianza en la información”.  Communication & Society, 32(1), 179-195. doi: 10.15581/003.32.1.179-195. [ISSN: 0214-0039. ISSN: 2386-7876]. En http://www.communication-society.com.

Mendoza, R.; Gualda, E. y Spinatsch, M. (Editores) (2019): La mediación intercultural en la atención sanitaria a inmigrantes y minorías étnicas. Modelos, estudios, programas y práctica profesional. Una visión internacional. Ed. Díaz de Santos, Madrid.

Gualda, E. y Vizcaíno Cruzado, E. (2019): “¿En qué crees tú?” Creyentes y no creyentes ante las Teorías de la Conspiración”. En Gualda, E. (Dir.): Sociedades y Fronteras. Actas del IX Congreso Andaluz de Sociología, Huelva 23-24 de noviembre de 2018. Huelva: Universidad de Huelva, 173-189.

Delgado-Parrilla, A.; Gómez-Rasco, T. y Gualda, E. (2019): “De mayor quiero y espero ser…”: Aspiraciones y expectativas educativas y laborales de adolescentes y jóvenes de origen inmigrante en Huelva desde una perspectiva género. En Gualda, E. (Dir.): Sociedades y Fronteras. Actas del IX Congreso Andaluz de Sociología, Huelva 23-24 de noviembre de 2018. Huelva: Universidad de Huelva, 377-388.

Rebollo, C. y Gualda, E. (2019): “Teorías de la Conspiración y creencias sobre la invasión del Islam”. En Gualda, E. (Dir.): Sociedades y Fronteras. Actas del IX Congreso Andaluz de Sociología, Huelva 23-24 de noviembre de 2018. Huelva: Universidad de Huelva, 389-402.

Rebollo, C.; Gualda, E. (2018): “La situación internacional de los refugiados y su imagen en Twitter. Un reto para la intervención desde Trabajo Social”. Documentos de Trabajo Social, nº59 ISSN: 1133-6552. eISSN: 2173-8246. 

González-Gómez, T. y Gualda, E. (2017): “Disclosing the Relational Structure of Institutional Cross-border Cooperation in Two Cross-border Regions in Europe”. Journal of Borderlands Studies, DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2017.1399810. Publicado online: 17 Nov 2017, pp.1-17. ISSN: 0886-5655. eISSN: 2159-1229.

Gallego, M.; Gualda, E. y Rebollo, C. (2017): “Women and Refugees in Twitter: Rethorics of Abuse, Vulnerability and Violence from a Gender Perspective”. Journal of Mediterranean Knowledge, vol.2, nº1, pp.37-58. http://www.mediterraneanknowledge.org/publications/index.php/journal/article/view/65.

Gualda, E. y Rebollo, C. (2017). “Polarización de los discursos sobre refugiados en Twitter: nuevos desafíos para la integración”. En FAMSI (ed.) Migraciones, derechos humanos y servicios públicos locales para la inclusión social. Ed. Fondo Andaluz de Municipios para la Solidaridad Internacional (FAMSI), Sevilla, pp. 110-123. En https://issuu.com/andaluciasolidaria/ docs/derechos_humanos__migraciones_y_com. ISBN: 978-84-697-3865-8.

Gualda, E. y Rebollo, C. (2016): “Refugee crisis in Twitter: Diversity of Discourses at an European Crossroads”, Journal of Spatial and Organizational Dynamics. Volume IV, Issue 3, pp.199-212. En http://rabida.uhu.es/dspace/handle/10272/13624.

Gualda, E.; Borrero, J.D.; Carpio, J. (2015): “La ‘Spanish Revolution’ en Twitter (2): Redes de hashtags (#) y actores individuales y colectivos respecto a los desahucios en España”. Redes. Revista hispana para el análisis de redes sociales. Vol. 26 (1), pp.1-22. En http://revistes.uab.cat/redes/article/view/v26-n1-gualda-borrerodiaz-carpio (ISSN: 1579-0185).