Research Design and Practice

This intensive course introduces participants to the basic principles of research strategy and design. We discuss how to develop a meaningful research question and how to answer it scientifically. The main goal of the course is to raise students' awareness for the tradeoffs associated with different aspects of research design. The course should enable participants to assess how their empirical approach, as well as the cases they select and the evidence they draw upon, affect the answers they get. 

In a hands-on approach, we will further discuss strategies to address practical challenges that plague (almost) all research projects. This includes challenges such as formulating a strong research question; summarizing the literature; structuring a theoretical argument; and framing the paper with a good introduction and conclusion.  

Participants need to send concise research proposals (one page) two weeks in advance because group work and practical exercises will be applied to the students' own research projects. 

Dates

The course will take place online on three half days, 21, 22 and 23 October 2020. 

About the lecturer

Christian Gläßel is a Research Associate to Anita Gohdes at the Hertie School's Centre for International Security, and a Doctoral Candidate at the Mannheim Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences (GESS). His research focuses on the inner workings of authoritarian regimes, subversive threats, and the logic behind violent and nonviolent forms of state repression.