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Department of Comparative Politics

Nettverk SAMEVAL - Network-building Activities, The CORE Research Group

In 2020 the CORE research group was awarded network funds from the Norwegian Research Council based on the Excellent score in the evaluation of the Social Sciences in Norway (SAMEVAL) in 2018. The grants will be used for several activities that will contribute to strengthen research training related to data collection and statistical methods for PhD candidates, postdocs, and permanent faculty, including PhD courses as well as shorter Advanced Methods Courses on various topics. We will also invite prominent speakers and guests through the CORE Lecture series, the yearly Stein Rokkan symposium and our Scholars-in-residence scheme to broaden our scientific network, strengthen international research collaboration, increase the visibility of the research group as well as providing opportunities to receive feedback on our research from visiting scholars.

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Aktiviteter

The project aims at strengthening the CORE group’s international network through a Scholar-in-Residence scheme, an Invited speaker series, and a yearly Stein Rokkan Symposium. Furthermore, it aims at developing and strengthening the methodological competence among PhD-candidates and faculty through PhD-courses and shorter “crash courses” on Advanced Research Methods.

The application includes the following activities (specified below): (1) Scholars-in-Residence scheme, (2) The CORE Lecture Series, (3) Stein Rokkan Symposium, (4) Shorter Advanced Methods courses, (5) PhD-course in Survey Experiments: Design and Data Analysis, and (6) PhD-course in Analysis of Panel Data.

 

Scholars-in-Residence scheme

Under this scheme, every year the CORE group will host selected scholars from Norway and abroad who want to visit the department for a period of app. 1-2 months. Selection of candidates will be based on compatibility with the group’s research interests, the expected output, and the quality of the candidates. During their stay, visiting researchers are expected to e.g. work on a joint publication or a joint proposal for third-party funding, and to work on research group activities. The visiting researchers will participate in the activities of the CORE research group and the Department of Comparative Politics, meeting regularly with other colleagues, interacting with PhD candidates on issues relevant to their thesis, and presenting their research and commenting on others research as part of the research group activity.

 

The CORE Lecture Series

The CORE Lecture Series was established in the spring semester 2021. Here invite leading international scholars are invited to present their ongoing research on a broad range of topical issues for the research group. The lectures are held approximately 8 times throughout the academic year, and they are open to any interested faculty, PhD candidates, students or the general public.

 

The Stein Rokkan Memorial Lecture Symposium

Starting in 1981, the Department of Comparative Politics has annually arranged the Stein Rokkan Memorial Lecture. The purpose of the lecture is to draw attention to the memory of Stein Rokkan and the most outstanding exponents of his fields of research, first and foremost comparative politics and political sociology. Among the most prominent lecturers we find names such as Robert A. Dahl, Seymour Martin Lipset, Adam Przeworski, and Robert D. Putnam. The Stein Rokkan Memorial Lecture Symposium is an annual research symposium devoted to themes relating to the lecture and the laureate. It is structured as a one-day intensive workshop featuring the laureate, invited external researchers and staff members working on similar topics.  

 

Shorter Advanced Methods courses

The CORE Group will yearly arrange short “crash courses” on the most relevant, popular and newest methods adopted in political science research. We aim to offer training development for researchers at various stages in their career: doctoral students, postdocs, and scholars with substantial experience looking for a refresher or extending their knowledge into new research methods. Based on previous experience with arranging this type of short advanced methods courses (on Quantitative Text Analysis and on Bayesian Statistics), the research group will organize flexible (2-3-days) courses designed to be accessible to busy researchers, delivered by experienced, well-known invited instructors in the field.  

 

PhD-courses

The CORE-group will also establish PhD-courses in advanced political science methods with an invited lecturer. Our plan is to host a course in Analysis of Panel Data twice – in 2022 and 2024. The course will be held over 1 week, with about 30 national or European PhD candidates. The course aims to provide an overview of statistical methods appropriate for the analysis of longitudinal data, or data collected on multiple units (individuals, states, dyads, countries) at more than one point in time. The emphasis will be on taking advantage of the benefits that panel data provide the researcher in making inferences about causal dynamics, while at the same time being sensitive to the specific problems and complexities that emerge when conducting panel analyses.