Ilia Markov

Ilia Markov is an Assistant Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, affiliated with both the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities and the Network Institute. His research focuses on computational linguistics, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence, with particular emphasis on hate speech detection and counterspeech strategies.

Education:

• PhD in Computer Science (with honors) from the National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico (2018)

Dr. Markov's research aims to foster more inclusive and respectful online communication by mitigating online hate speech and developing context-aware, personalized counterspeech strategies tailored to authors' sociodemographic profiles. He also investigates cross-domain scalability and the reasoning capabilities of AI models. His work bridges computational linguistics with social computing, focusing on practical applications for creating safer online environments. His research demonstrates technical sophistication in developing novel computational methods while maintaining awareness of social implications.

His publication record shows a clear trajectory from foundational work in authorship analysis and native language identification to current research on hate speech detection and counterspeech generation. Recent publications emphasize multimodal approaches that integrate text and image analysis, cross-lingual transfer learning techniques, and ethical considerations in deploying AI systems for social media moderation. His work increasingly addresses low-resource language scenarios and the challenges of adapting models across different social contexts.

Scientific Awards and Recognition:

• Outstanding Academic Performance Award for PhD students at the National Polytechnic Institute
• Senior Area Chair for LREC-COLING 2024
• Area Chair for LREC 2026

Dr. Markov has co-organized several international competitions on automatic authorship identification and serves in editorial roles for major conferences in computational linguistics. His collaborative work spans multiple institutions across Europe and Latin America, reflecting the international nature of his research community. He has published over 65 peer-reviewed papers in journals and conference proceedings, demonstrating consistent productivity and impact in his field.

As part of the Network Institute at VU Amsterdam, Dr. Markov contributes to interdisciplinary research that combines computational methods with social science perspectives to address contemporary challenges in digital communication. His affiliation with this institute provides a rich environment for exploring the societal implications of his technical work while maintaining rigorous methodological standards.