Comparative Historical Analysis: How to Use History in Social Inquiry

This course is offered as part of the Radboud Summer School in Social Research Methods, in collaboration with MethodsNET (a global network that offers excellent training in social research methods).

This course offers guidance to scholars exploring macro-historical questions and looking to Comparative Historical Analysis to better understand the methodological implications of incorporating historical into social inquiry.

Course leader

Marcus Kreuzer
Professorand Chair
Political Science Department
Villanova University

Target group

-Master
-PhD
-Post-doc
-Professional

This PhD level course is open to all researchers aiming at bringing their research to the next level. It is particularly suitable to scholars at the exploratory stages of a research projects trying to formulate a research question. Or scholars who already have a research question but are having a hard time fitting it into a more conventional variance-based research design. Or to students who are aware of the historical nature of their project, but cannot fully explicate its methodological implications.

Course aim

After this course you are able to:

-Learn how to think historically and deploy CHA’s temporal vocabulary
-Identify broad macro patterns and translate them into research questions
-Understand how tacit ontological assumptions shape what questions we ask and what methods we employ.
-How to respond to the “Reviewer 2 problem”, that is, the colleague who does not understand the methodological implications of answering macro historical questions.

Credits info

2 EC
2 ECTS credits, with the possibility of an extra 1-3 ECTS credits depending on additional course work and assignments handed in during or after the summer school (for a possible total of up to 5 ECTS).

Fee info

EUR 575: The fee includes the registration fees, course materials, access to library and IT facilities, coffee/tea, lunch, and a number of social activities.

Scholarships

We offer several reduced fees:
€ 518 early bird discount- deadline 1 April 2022 (10%)
€ 489 partner + RU discount (15%)
€ 431 early bird + partner + RU discount (25%)