Oliver Rittmann

Oliver Rittmann serves as a Lorenz von Stein Research Fellow at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Sciences (MZES), University of Mannheim. His research integrates computational analysis of audio, image, and video data to address core political science questions in political representation, inequality, and communication.

Rittmann pioneers the application of computer vision in legislative studies, notably through his current project analyzing gender-based attention disparities in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament. Using AI-driven video analysis of plenary sessions, he demonstrates that female members receive systematically less attention than male counterparts—a pattern driven exclusively by male MPs' behavior. His methodology transforms unstructured audiovisual data into quantifiable political behavior metrics, bridging longstanding gaps between social theory and empirical evidence.

His publication record (2020-2025) reveals three thematic pillars: audiovisual analysis of parliamentary behavior (body language, vocal pitch, attention patterns), statistical methodology for regression interpretation, and electoral system dynamics. These works consistently advance data science applications in political science, particularly through novel computational frameworks for previously unstructured data sources.

Scientific Awards

• Lorenz von Stein Research Fellowship

Rittmann leads interdisciplinary collaborations between political scientists and computer scientists, as evidenced by his parliamentary attention project. His research demonstrates how data science enables large-scale behavioral analysis impossible through traditional methods—processing thousands of speeches rather than selective case studies. Future work will likely expand audiovisual analysis to other legislative contexts while refining gender inequality metrics.