30221 Research internship: Working with the German Socio-Economic Panel

Monday, 14:00 - 18:00 CET I Prof. Dr. Stefan Liebig

The German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) is a representative panel study for the German population, collecting data on a broad variety of topics of everyday life, including general wellbeing, household composition, educational aspirations and educational status, income and occupational biographies, leisure time activities, housing, health, political orientation and more. With its long running panel structure, the breadth of topics and the representative nature of the data, the SOEP has become a central resources for quantitative research in the social sciences in Germany.

This seminar offers a well-grounded and practically oriented introduction to the data of the Socio-economic panel study. Participants will be introduced to the content of the study, its data-structure, sample selection and weighting strategy and they will be provided with an overview over the study documentation.

Each session consists of two parts: In the first part, an introduction to the respective subject area is given; in the second part, the contents taught are practiced directly on the computer. The practical part of each session requires familiarity with methods of empirical analysis and basic programming skills in STATA.

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30211 Advanced seminar: Antisemitism: Concepts, Measures and Empirical Results

Tuesday, 12:00-14:00 CET I Prof.  Dr. Stefan Liebig

The standardized measurement of antisemitic attitudes is one of the earliest concepts within empirical social research. Measurement instruments and time series of national and international comparative surveys based on them have been available since the mid-1940s. This seminar will first provide an overview of the classical theories of empirical social research as well as measurement concepts and instruments used to describe and explain antisemitic attitudes. This will be complemented by an insight into data sets and analytical results based on these concepts, as well as qualitative approaches to measuring antisemitic attitudes. Both classical measurement concepts and survey-based approaches have recently come under increasing criticism. The criticism focuses primarily on the extent to which the existing dimensions of antisemitic attitudes can be adequately captured and whether surveys are suitable for measuring them. On this basis, newer measurement concepts as well as newer methodological approaches are presented. The latter aim to open up non-reactive measurements, such as those that are increasingly possible through text analysis or the analysis of statements on social media channels, as a data basis for social science research on antisemitism. The seminar introduces students to the theoretical and methodological approaches of classical and more recent empirical social scientific research on antisemitism and provides theoretical and methodological skills for the comparative analysis of current developments. Sufficient knowledge of quantitative methods and statistics is required for attending this seminar.

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30233 Colloquium: Colloquium

Tuesday, 14:00 - 16:00 CET I Prof. Dr. Stefan Liebig

In this colloquium, students have the opportunity of presenting their beginning and ongoing master’s thesis projects conducted on topics relating to social stratification and survey data. The discussions will focus on how to find an adequate research question, literature, and data. Furthermore, feedback on students’ thesis progress will be offered by peers and supervisors. In addition, there will be room for discussions on common challenges faced when writing a master’s thesis.