Summer School

Research design is a core component of every good research paper, irrespective of is theoretical approach or type of empirical evidence (quantitative or qualitative) to be collected and analysed. Its importance derives from its features: provides a structure to the analysis, makes data collection systematic, guides readers through the logic of the research enterprise, and increases the reliability and transparency of the research endeavour.

Traditionally researchers' literature reviews aspired to summarising the knowledge concerning a research topic. The sheer amount of studies makes this a unrealistic ideal. This brief session is meant to give a very quick overview of what systematic reviews and meta-regressions are and what they can do for social scientists.

If inclusion came as a flat pack what would the instructions look like? There were many challenges to working online through covid, but this did also enable new forms of collaboration and allowed more flexible and accessible engagement for those with caring responsibilities, remotely located or coping with immune compromisation and other disabilities. For some online working provided more equitable experiences than they had previously encountered. As working habits again change, how can we keep the best of digital affordances and overcome the challenges that working in hybrid spaces may entail?

In this session we will introduce the methods of Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD), and provide the opportunity to apply them in a practical lab using Stata. 

This workshop will discuss the challenges and strategies for those preparing to teach quantitative methods courses for the first time. The workshop will cover aspects such as book selection, to what level to pitch a course at, to how to handle classes/students that do not engage in lectures. There will be opportunities to work in groups to discuss teaching approaches and chances to ask questions that you have regarding teaching practices. 

Publishing is our currency in academia and there is a long and steep learning curve to it, because it is not about what we know, nor about how good researchers we are, it is about how we report what we have come to know and also about who we are reporting it to. In this session, we will explore publication strategies, from persuasion strategies to applied formulas, and from co-authoring to reviewing and dealing with reviews.

This two-session workshop will provide participants with the knowledge and a range of practical tools required for conducting a systematic review. A range of approaches to evidence synthesis and systematic reviews will be considered. The workshop will consist of lectures and opportunities for participants to discuss and develop their own reviews through interactive group work and discussions. 

This session will largely focus on in-person ethnographic research both within your own country or a country other than that within which you live.

This will be an interactive workshop that will explore the benefits of using an online collaborative autoethnographic approach to reflect on personal and shared experiences. Chang, Heewon et al (2012: 17) describe collaborative autoethnography as a ‘qualitative research method that is simultaneously collaborative, autobiographical and ethnographic’. In this workshop we will look at the practicalities of using such an approach online.

Three talks will be delivered by Dr. Chollet, Dr. Lages and Dr. Guha on the topics of AI and decision making for human behaviour and analysis and synthesis. 

In this workshop we will look at how to make the best use of NVivo in your qualitative data analysis. We will consider which NVivo tools will be most useful for your PhD study and you will see how to set up an NVivo project. We will also cover how to code your data and where to find help when using NVivo. 

The purpose of this workshop is to understand different ways for researchers to orientate themselves toward qualitative data and, in particular, to consider different ways of being 'truthful' to those data. The facilitators will use two extended examples from their own work (an interview study of women's experiences of GP encounters following domestic abuse and a comparative ethnography of men's experiences of the social determinants of health).

This session will give participants an insight into who, what, why, where, when and even how journalists and producers gather interviews with academics.

This workshop will give you the confidence and agency to move forward with your career planning, helping you identify personal skills and strengths, success drivers and values, and what this means for your future post PhD.

Participants will understand the methodological underpinnings of sampling in quantitative social sciences research. They will learn to select appropriate sampling procedures, evaluate and critique sampling plans.

This session will reflect on the use of comparative case studies as a research design. It is aimed at students who are undertaking - or plan to undertake - a comparative case research design. It is not primarily aimed at disciplines that have well-developed methodological positions on this approach (e.g. comparative political economy) although researchers from those disciplines are welcome to join us.