Seminars and Teaching

Accademia Fiesolana is the SPS department’s introductory department seminar. Its objectives are to lay the groundwork for thinking about your own (and others) research as well as 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 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 registration is required. No credits.
Dates: from 12-21 September 2023

Download the full Syllabus

Description

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.

Contact: [email protected]

Block 2

Preparatory workshops (Recommended for all first-year researchers) No credits.
Dates: from 25-29 September 2023
Register here

10:00 – 12:00 Mathematics for Political and Social Scientists

13:00 – 15:00 Introduction to R

15:00 – 17:00 Introduction to Qualitative Methods – Philosophy and Ethics, Interviews and Ethnography

Contact: [email protected]

Research Practicum – Introductory two seminar sessions on 12 and 22 September 2023
Register here

Download the full Syllabus

Contact: [email protected]

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: M. GOLDEN & S. HIX
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: International Relations
Professor: S. GUZZINI
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Sociology: Main questions and building blocks
Professor: J. HARKONEN & A. VAN DE RIJT &  H. VAN DE WERFHORST
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Public Policy and Institutions 
Professor: A. HEMERIJCK & E. IMMERGUT
Contact: [email protected] 

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Introduction to Qualitative Methods
Professor: J. CHECKEL
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Intermediate Quantitative Methods
Professor:A. VAN DE RIJT and F. KOSTELKA
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Introduction to Quantitative Methods
Professor: J. DI COCCO
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Research Practicum (Seminar starts on 12 September)
Professor: M. GOLDEN
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Crisis, what crisis? Comparative research into hard Policy problems
Professor: A. HEMERIJCK & W. SCHELKLE
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Europe in the World (1^st and 2^nd term)
Professor: S. HOFMANN
Contact: [email protected]

Title: Comparative Case Study Research Design
Mentoring professor / Instructor: E. Immergut & W. Schelkle
Dates: 17 November & 1 December 2023
Contact: [email protected]

Workshop Title: Prospectus workshop
Mentoring professor / Instructor: A. HEMERIJCK & S.HIX
Dates: 15 November 2023 + 10 January 2024
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Professionalization and Disciplinary Ethics (no credits)
Professor: E. DINAS & F. KOSTELKA & M. GOLDEN
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Causal Inference
Professor: E. DINAS 
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Foundations of Political & Social Science: Philosophy, Theory and Ethics
Professor: J. CHECKEL
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Power
Professor: S. GUZZINI
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Replicating Research in Political Science
Professor: S. HIX
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Europe and the World (1^st and 2^nd term)
Professor: S. HOFMANN
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: The History and Politics of Order-making
Professor: S. HOFMANN (SPS) & G. SLUGA (HEC)
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: The New Institutional Behavioralism
Professor: E. IMMERGUT
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Reading course on big structures, large processes and huge comparisons
Professor: W. SCHELKLE
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Economic Inequalities and Their Effects on Society
Professor: H. VAN DE WERFHORST
Contact: [email protected]

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Professionalization and Disciplinary Ethics (no credits)
Professor: E. DINAS & F. KOSTELKA & M. GOLDEN
Contact: [email protected]

Title: Game theory and formal modelling
Instructor: Ipek Cinelli, Max Weber Fellow and SPS Part-time professor
Dates: 27 February 2024
Contact: Gabriel Lindgren

Seminar Outline / Syllabus: Research Practicum (Seminar starts on 12 September)
Professor: M. GOLDEN
Contact: [email protected]

Title: Advanced age-period-cohort analysis
Supervising professor: J. Härkönen
Speaker / Instructor: Jos Van Leeuwen, SPS
Dates: 18-19 April
Credit: 10
Contact: [email protected]

Title: Bayesian Process Tracing
Supervising professor: W. Schelkle
Speaker / Instructor: Tasha Fairfield, LSE 
Dates: 5-7, 10-11 June
Credit: 20
Contact: [email protected]

Title: Cheers and Concerns on the Meritocracy
Supervising professor: H. van de Werfhorst
Speaker / Instructor: Jonathan Mijs (Sociology, Boston University) & Anatolia Batruch (University of Lausanne)
Dates: 14-15 May 2024
Credit: 10
Contact: [email protected]

Title: Comparing, Casing and Generalizing in the Social Sciences: Traditional Designs and Innovative Approaches
Supervising professor: J. Checkel
Speaker / Instructor: Erica Simmons (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Dates: 13-14 May
Credit: 10
Contact: [email protected]

Title: Computational text analysis 
Supervising professor: S. Hix
Speaker / Instructor: Mirko Wegemann, SPS
Dates: 30-31 May and 3-4 June
Credit: 10
Contact: [email protected]

Title: Concept analysis
Supervising professor: S. Guzzini
Speaker / Instructor: TBC
Dates: 20-22 May
Credit: 10
Contact: [email protected]

Title: Elite interviews 
Supervising professor: A. Hemerijck
Speaker / Instructor: David Bokhorst, SPS
Dates: 8-9 May
Credit: 10
Contact: [email protected]

Title: Game theory and formal modelling
Supervising professor: A. van de Rijt
Speaker / Instructor: I. Cinelli, Max Weber Fellow and SPS Part-time professor
Dates: 27/2 + 5/3 - 12/3 - 19/3 - 26/3 (from 13:00 - 15:00)
Credit: 10
Contact: [email protected]

Title: Historical Political Economy
Supervising professor: E. Dinas
Speaker / Instructor: Felix Schaff, MWF
Dates: 2-3 April
Deadline for registration: 19 March 2024
Credit: 10
Contact: [email protected]

Title: Interviewing Members of the Public: An Introduction to Qualitative Interviewing
Supervising professor: A. van de Rijt
Speaker / Instructor: Paulus Wagner, MWF and Laurène Le Cozanet, MWF
Dates: 11-17 April
Credit: 20
Contact: Claudia.Fan[email protected]  

Title: Learning to Use Declare Design
Supervising professor: M. Golden 
(Please note the change of instructor)
Speaker / Instructor: Macartan Humphreys, WZB
Dates: 29-30 April 
Credit: 10
Contact: [email protected]

Title: Survey Experiments
Supervising professor: F. Kostelka
Speaker / Instructor: Alexandra Jabbour, MWF
Dates: 6-7 May
Credit: 10
Contact: [email protected]

Title: Unleashing the Potential of Geography Information Systems (GIS)
Supervising professor: A. van de Rijt
Speaker / Instructor: Fernando De La Cuesta, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Dates: 27-28 May
Credit: 10
Contact: [email protected]

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 - go from compulsory introductory seminars in qualitative and quantitative methods to intermediate and more advanced mixed methodological seminars.

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, one specialised workshop typically counts for 10 hours (unless otherwise specified).
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, Introduction to Qualitative Methods can be taken 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.