Seminars and Teaching

Accademia Fiesolana is the SPS Department’s introductory department seminar. Its objective is for first-year researchers to become familiar with the research done in the SPS department. It consists of seminar meetings in which the faculty members of the department introduce their research. There is also a session showcasing the department’s pluralism, in which two very different theoretical and methodological approaches to the same topic – identity – are brought together.
The Preparatory workshops are voluntary but recommended. The objectives of the three workshops are to prepare researchers for courses offered later in the programme and to brush up on some basic skills that researchers may need during their studies. They are offered as intensive courses over one week.

Block 1
Accademia Fiesolana (Compulsory for all first-year researchers). No credits.
Date: 12 – 19 September 2025
No registration required
Contact: Monika.Rzemieniecka@eui.eu

Block 2
Preparatory workshops (Recommended for all first-year researchers) No credits.
Dates: from 22-26 September 2025
Register here
Contact: Monika.Rzemieniecka@eui.eu

10:00 – 12:00 Mathematics for Political and Social Scientists
13:00 – 15:00 Introduction to R
15:00 – 17:00 Basics of Qualitative Research: Philosophy and Ethics, Interviews and Ethnography
Contact: Monika.Rzemieniecka@eui.eu

Each researcher must follow and pass at least one field seminar of their choosing in the first year of studies.

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Comparative Politics 
Professor: Sascha Riaz, Simon Hix 
Contact: Marco.Pistolesi@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: International relations 
Professor: Raffaella A. Del Sarto, Stefano Guzzini  
Contact: Sofia.Altesini@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Public Policy and Institutions
Professor: Anton Hemerijck, Waltraud Schelkle  
Contact: Claudia.Fanti@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Sociology
Professor: Herman G. van de Werfhorst, Juho Härkönen
Contact: Monika.Rzemieniecka@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Introduction to Qualitative Methods
Professor: Natasja Rupesinghe, Tasha Fairfield  
Contact: Sofia.Altesini@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Intermediate Qualitative Methods
Professor: Jeffrey T. Checkel
Contact: Pia.Dittmar@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Introduction to Quantitative Methods
Professor: Alejandro López Peceño
Contact: Olena.Shcherbatiuk@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Intermediate Quantitative Methods
Professor: Kevin Munger, Filip Kostelka  
Contact: Marco.Pistolesi@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Europe in the world (on a fortnightly basis) 
(This seminar takes place in the 1st and 2nd term)
Professor: Stephanie Hofmann
Contact: Sofia.Altesini@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Professionalisation Seminar (compulsory for first-year researchers, once per  month, NO CREDITS)
(This seminar takes place in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd term)
Professor: Filip Kostelka
Contact: Monika.Rzemieniecka@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Reviewing and Publishing (on fortnightly basis)
(This seminar takes place in the 1st and 2nd term)
Professor: Stephanie Hofmann 
Contact: Sofia.Altesini@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Bayesian Methods
Professor: Tasha Fairfield
Contact: Sofia.Altesini@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Causal Inference
Professor: Sascha Riaz 
Contact: Marco.Pistolesi@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Dependent development? De-centring Europe’s transitions  
Professor: Waltraud Schelkle, Corinna Unger, HEC
Contact: Olena.Shcherbatiuk@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Europe in the world (on a fortnightly basis)
(This seminar takes place in the 1st and 2nd term)
Professor: Stephanie Hofmann  
Contact:  Sofia.Altesini@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Identities, Interactions, and Institutions across Place and Time 
Professor: Valentina Di Stasio, Léa Pessin 
Contact:  Claudia.Fanti@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Life Courses and Inequality: Education, labor markets, family and health 
Professor: Herman G. van de Werfhorst, Juho Härkönen
Contact: Monika.Rzemieniecka@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Philosophies of Social Science 
Professor: Jeffrey T. Checkel  
Contact: Pia.Dittmar@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Political culture
Professor: Elias Dinas   
Contact: Pia.Dittmar@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Politics and IR of the Middle East 
Professor: Raffaella A. Del Sarto  
Contact:  Claudia.Fanti@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Power
Professor: Stefano Guzzini
Contact: Sofia.Altesini@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Professionalisation Seminar (compulsory for first-year researchers, once per  month, NO CREDITS
(This seminar takes place in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd term)
Professor: Filip Kostelka
Contact: Monika.Rzemieniecka@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Replicating Research in Political Science 
Professor: Simon Hix  
Contact: Olena.Shcherbatiuk@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Reviewing and Publishing (on fortnightly basis) 
(This seminar takes place in the 1st and 2nd term)
Professor: Stephanie Hofmann
Contact: Sofia.Altesini@eui.eu

Prospectus workshop
Dates: 14 January + 25 February TBC 
Professor: Anton Hemerijck, Simon Hix
Contact: liga.livena@eui.eu

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Professionalisation Seminar (compulsory for first-year researchers, once per  month, NO CREDITS)
(This seminar takes place in the 1st, 2nd term and 3rd term)
Professor: Filip Kostelka
Contact: Monika.Rzemieniecka@eui.eu

Advanced Counterfactual Methods for Causal Inference with Panel Data
Dates: 27–30 April
Supervising Professor(s): Simon Hix & Herman van de Werfhorst
Instructor: Roberto Valli (Max Weber Fellow) and Sebastian Ramirez-Ruiz (Max Weber Fellow)
Contact: Olena.Shcherbatiuk@eui.eu

Automated Data Collection with R
Dates: 4–5 June
Supervising Professor(s): Kevin Munger
Contact: Marco.Pistolesi@eui.eu

Beginner-Friendly Python for GIS: A Hands-On Journey to Satellite Imagery
Dates: 30–31 March
Supervising Professor(s): Elias Dinas
Instructor: Anatole Cheysson, University of Bologna
Contact: Liga.Livena@eui.eu

Conjoint Experiments: Design and Data Analysis
Dates: 28–29 May
Supervising Professor(s): Valentina Di Stasio
Instructor: Flavien Ganter (Max Weber Fellow)
Contact: Monika.Rzemieniecka@eui.eu

Ethnographic Approaches to Data Collection in the Field
Dates: 9–10 April
Supervising Professor(s): Natasha Rupesinghe
Contact: Sofia.Altesini@eui.eu

Fieldwork Practicum
Dates: 9–10–11 June
Supervising Professor(s): Stephanie Hofmann
Instructor: Miranda Loli (Max Weber Fellow)
Contact: Sofia.Altesini@eui.eu

Focus Groups for the Social Science Researcher, or How Talking to People can Benefit Your Research
Dates: 1–2 June
Supervising Professor(s): Tasha Fairfield
Instructor: Jennifer Cyr (Universidad Torcuato di Tella)
Contact: Sofia.Altesini@eui.eu

G-methods
Dates: 15–16 April
Supervising Professor(s): Juho Harkonen
Instructor: Alejandra Rodríguez-Sánchez, Humboldt University
Contact: Monika.Rzemieniecka@eui.eu

Geographies of Violence in the Middle East and Beyond
Dates: 17 + 20 April
Supervising Professor(s): Raffaella Del Sarto
Instructors: Dima Alsajdeya (Max Weber Fellow), Ronay Bakan (Max Weber Fellow), Thomas McGee (Max Weber Fellow)
Contact: Claudia.Fanti@eui.eu

Introduction to Large Language Models for the Social Sciences
Dates: 17 + 20 + 21 + 22 April
Supervising Professor(s): Sascha Riaz & Alejandro Lopez
Instructor: Maksim Zubok (Oxford University)
Contact: Liga.Livena@eui.eu

Introduction to Survey Experiments
Dates: 18–19 May
Supervising Professor(s): Filip Kostelka
Instructor: Alexandra Jabbour, University of Warwick
Contact: Monika.Rzemieniecka@eui.eu

Postcolonial, Decolonial and Feminist Theory (in IR)
Dates: 11–12 May
Supervising Professor(s): Arnout van de Rijt & Stefano Guzzini
Contact: Liga.Livena@eui.eu

Putting Social Science in Motion: Tracing, Following and Beyond
Dates: 21 + 23 April
Supervising Professor(s): Jeff Checkel
Instructor: Professor Nicholas Rush Smith (SOAS, London)
Contact: Pia.Dittmar@eui.eu

Revisiting dependent variables: Principal Component Analysis and Policy Synergy Analysis in political and social sciences
Dates: 4–5 May
Supervising Professor(s): Anton Hemerijck
Instructor: Llorenc Soler (Max Weber Fellow)
Contact: Claudia.Fanti@eui.eu

The ‘nested’ politics of structural reform. In search of novel heuristics
Dates: 26–27 March
Supervising Professor(s): Waltraud Schelkle
Contact: Liga.Livena@eui.eu

Theory in Practice
Dates: 14–15 May + 26–27 May
Supervising Professor(s): Stefano Guzzini & Arnout van de Rijt
Instructor: Tamas Peragovics (Max Weber Fellow)
Contact: Sofia.Altesini@eui.eu

FIELD SEMINARS:
Field seminars - there are four: “Sociology”, “International Relations”, “Comparative Politics”, ”Public Policy and Institutions”. Each researcher must follow and pass at least one field seminar of their choice in the first year of studies.

METHODS SEMINARS
Methods seminars - Each researcher must attend and pass the following seminars during the first two years of the doctoral programme: 1) either "Introduction to Quantitative Methods", or "Intermediate Quantitative Methods", or "Statistics and Econometrics" 1 taught in the Economics department, and 2) either "Introduction to Qualitative Methods" or "Intermediate Qualitative Methods

RESEARCH SEMINARS:
Research seminars (=non-methods, non-field) are more focused on specific, cutting- edge topics within a given substantive research area.

WORKSHOPS
Workshops - are shorter in duration than seminars and are concentrated in a few days (typically, two or three days). They usually take place in the third term and are mostly devoted to research methods.

To register for a seminar or workshop use the OSIRIS Online Portal.

Full attendance in the seminars and workshops, together with any other requirements specified by the professor teaching the seminar, is necessary in order to be awarded credits. One full seminar or masterclass counts for 20 hours, Workshops give 10 (10-hour workshops) or 20 (20-hour workshop) credits
For any more information on the requirements please check the SPS researchers' guide.

You must take either Introduction to Quantitative Methods or Intermediate Quantitative Methods (depending on your previous quantitative methods training) during the first two years of the doctoral programme.
 Likewise, you must take either Introduction to Qualitative Methods or Intermediate Qualitative Methods (depending on your previous quantitative methods training) during the first two years of the doctoral programme.
In addition, researchers must take one of the four field seminars ("Sociology”, “Comparative Politics”, “Public Policy and Institutions”, “International Relations”) during their first year First-year researchers must attend the monthly Professionalisation Seminar.