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GESIS - Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences
GESIS Training

GESIS Training News

April 2020

Spring Seminar | Methodenseminar | Summer School | Workshops

Table of Contents

Restrictions in our program due to the Coronavirus

The GESIS Training Team is very concerned about the health of participants and lecturers of our courses. For this reason we have cancelled all events that were supposed to take place up to and including 23 April 2020. As of today (03.04.2020), we plan to continue our event program after this date. If this is not possible, we are currently working on an alternative way to provide our events via online training. Furthermore, it cannot be ruled out that further events will have to be cancelled. In case an event has to be cancelled or you do not wish to participate in an online course, we will of course refund all participation fees. However, we cannot refund any further costs resulting from the cancellation. Please note that we cannot admit participants to our events from risk areas. More information here.

Take care of yourselves and help to flatten the curve!

40th GESIS Methods Seminar – Registration is open!

In 2020 we celebrate the 40th birthday of the Methods Seminar in Cologne. It will take place from 14 September – 02 October 2020. We changed the season—from now on, the Methods Seminar will be held in the fall. As always, the Methods Seminar offers three courses in German that introduce the basics of uni- and bivariate statistics as well as different regression models as used in the social sciences and digital humanities. Just like in previous years, there will be seminars in English on methods and techniques for big data – such as Machine Learning or Text Mining – using R or Python. These seminars should be interesting to all data scientists, social scientists, and researchers in the digital humanities that collect and analyze data from the web, social media, or digital text archive.

The following courses are on offer in 2020:

Methoden der sozialwissenschaftlichen Statistik (in German):

Uni- und bivariate Statistik (14 – 18 September)

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Schnettler, Andreas Filser (University of Oldenburg)

Einführung in die Regressionsanalyse mit Stata (21 – 25 September)

Prof. Dr. Michael Gebel (University of Bamberg), Dr. Jonas Voßemer (Umeå University, University of Bamberg)

Einführung in die Panel- und Mehrebenenanalyse mit Stata (28 September – 02 October)

Prof. Dr. Reinhard Schunck (University of Wuppertal), Prof. Dr. Janna Teltemann (University of Hildesheim)

Methoden der Computational Social Science (in English):

Introduction to Python for Social Scientists (14 – 15 September)

Dr. Arnim Bleier, Indira Sen (GESIS Cologne)

Introduction to Data Science with Python (16 – 18 September)

Dr. Arnim Bleier, Dr. Fabian Flöck, Dr. Juhi Kulshrestha (GESIS Cologne)

Introduction to Social Network Science with Python (21 – 25 September)

Dr. Haiko Lietz (GESIS Cologne)

Text Mining with R (28 September – 02 October)

Dr. Andreas Niekler (University of Leipzig), Dr. Gregor Wiedemann (University of Hamburg)

Thanks to our cooperation with the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities at the University of Cologne participants of the Methodenseminar may earn 2 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) points per course for active participation.

Book now! For more information on the Methods Seminar visit www.gesis.org/methodenseminar

GESIS Workshop Week on "Causal Mediation Analysis" from 05 – 09 October 2020 in Mannheim

Understanding the processes and mechanisms that bring about associations between observable variables has been at the core of the empirical social sciences. There is a long tradition of investigating theoretically postulated mechanisms, e.g., by means of classical path analysis or comparing nested regression models. However, recent findings in the field of causal inference challenge the traditionally employed tools and alternative strategies have been proposed.

The purpose of this workshop week is to familiarize social scientists with the theory and practice of causal mediation analysis. Next to short general introductions to the topics of causal inference and mediation analysis, all workshops offer hands-on training for researchers investigating causal relations such as total effects, direct effects, and indirect effects.

The first workshop Graphical Causal Models introduces graphical causal models (“DAGs”) as a tool to notate hypothesized causal relations (thus making underlying assumptions about the data-generating process explicit) and to devise strategies (such as choice of covariates) to identify specific causal effects from empirical data. The second workshop Introduction to Causal Mediation Analysis focuses on providing a more profound understanding of the assumptions needed to identify direct and indirect effects from data and introduces different regression-based estimation methods for applications with a single mediator. The third workshop Causal Mediation Analysis with Multiple Mediators extends the perspective to the case of multiple mediators.

While all three workshops can be booked and attended separately, we recommend interested researchers to participate in the whole workshop week, due to the consecutive nature of the workshops.

GESIS Workshop Week on "Behavioral Genetics in Social Science Research" from 19 – 23 October 2020 in Cologne

The goal of this workshop week is to familiarize social scientists with genetic data and provide instruction on how to incorporate genetic information into social science analyses. Next to short general introductions into the topic of genetics in the social sciences, both workshops offer hands-on training for researchers working at the intersection of genetics and social science research. The first workshop Introduction to Behavioral Genetic Modeling using Stata introduces and uses the “TwinLife“ data archived at GESIS to familiarize the participants with twin studies and related quantitative methods of behavioral genetic analysis on an introductory level. The second workshop Introduction to Behavioral Genetics introduces measured genetic data, and focuses on molecular genetics, heritability, genome-wise association studies, genetic correlation, and polygenic scores. It continues by discussing specific questions that arise in the work with genetics in the social sciences, like how to deal with genetic heterogeneity in social science models or how to estimate gene-environment interaction.

Selected participants will have the opportunity to present and discuss their own research ideas or projects in the form of a poster presentation with the lecturers and participants of the workshop in the evening of October 22, 2020. Participants interested in a poster presentation are asked to apply by submitting a short outline (about 0.5 pages) of their research idea or research project until August 20, 2020. Click here to submit your application.

Please remember to first book your workshop(s) and then apply for the poster presentation.

If you have questions regarding the workshop content or the application for the poster presentation please contact Sabina Haveric. For organizational matters, please send an e-mail to Janina Götsche.

Register now for the GESIS Workshop Weeks! We are looking forward to welcoming you.

Interview with Dr. Michael Kühhirt, Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology at the University of Cologne

Robbee WedowMichael is a lecturer at the Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology at the University of Cologne, Germany. He has attained both an M.A. (sociology, economic and social history/modern history) and a Ph.D. in social sciences (Dr. rer. soc.) at the University of Mannheim, Germany. His research focuses on the formation and development of social inequality over the life course. He is particularly interested in the role of specific life events (e.g., childbirth) in this process, as well as in social stratification in childhood and its determinants. He also very much enjoys teaching both methodological and substantive courses. He will conduct two courses within the frame of the workshop week on “Causal Mediation Analysis” in October 2020 in Mannheim.

How did you become interested in causal mediation analysis?

It was through both teaching research methods within the master program in Cologne and doing research on the mechanisms bringing about effects of social origin, gender, and different life events.

What lessons can participants draw from your GESIS course?

A key insight for me was that in order to draw strong conclusions from data analyses we always need to make strong theoretical assumptions.

What do you think is the most exciting recent development in empirical social research?

I think that tools of causal inference, particularly graphical causal models, promise to provide a rigorous and much needed link between theoretical models and empirical analyses.

We thank Michael for his interesting insights.

Interview with Robbee Wedow, PhD, MIT and Harvard

Robbee Wedow Robbee Wedow is a postdoctoral researcher at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where his work focuses on a highly interdisciplinary research agenda. Using statistical genetics methods and traditional demographic methods, Robbee's work sits at the intersection of genetics, sociology, and demography. He focuses both on genetic discovery with social science outcomes and also on the genetic and environmental etiologies of complex human social behaviors like educational attainment, smoking and drinking behavior, and same-sex sexual behavior. Together with Felix Tropf he will conduct the course “Introduction to Behavioral Genetics” within the frame of the Workshop Week on "Behavioral Genetics in Social Science Research" in October 2020 in Cologne.

How did you become interested in your subject?

I've always been interested in the social sciences and biology (especially genetics). In my undergradute programs in biochemistry and sociology, I became aware that the social sciences could be married with genetics, and I've been hooked ever since!

What lessons can participants draw from your GESIS course?

Apart from understanding how to analyze genetic data and interpret findings in the growing field of social science genetics, participants will be able to better understand the role of genetics and the environment in shaping complex social outcomes like educational attainment, fertility, or same-sex sexual behavior.

Are there any new publications or other sources you would like to recommend to our readers?

The paper on same-sex sexual behavior that I was heavily involved in is quite interesting and the article in the New York Times on "What Genetics Is Teaching Us About Sexuality" with professor Phelps. For the Frequently Asked Questions this video is quite useful. One can also always check my publications tab on my website for the most recent work from me.

What do you enjoy most about being a social scientist?

The most enjoyable part of my job is thinking about and demonstrating how social forces shape societal outcomes and the underlying biology of those outcomes across context and time.

We thank Robbee for his interesting insights.

Training Courses in German, May – December 2020

Training Courses in English, May – November 2020

Contact:
GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Department Knowledge Transfer, GESIS Training, P.O. Box 12 21 55, 68072 Mannheim, training@gesis.org
Visit us at training.gesis.org
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