10th Annual IPSA-USP Summer School Held in São Paulo

10th Annual IPSA-USP Summer School Held in São Paulo

Publication date: Wed, 13 Feb 2019

The 10th Annual IPSA-USP Summer School in Concepts, Methods and Techniques in Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations was held at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, from January 14 to February 1, 2019.  

Some 173 participants from 23 countries attended, with women accounting for 50.8% of enrollment. 328 student-modules were completed in 23 one-week courses.

The following courses were offered:

Module 1 (January 14-18) (35 hours)  

  • Basics of Quantitative Methods for Public Policy Analysis, Bruno Cautres (Sciences Po)
  • Designing Feasible Research Projects in Political Science, Allyson Benton (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, Mexico City)
  • Essentials of Applied Data Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis, Glauco Peres da Silva (University of São Paulo)
  • Essentials of Time Series for Time Series Cross Section Analyses, Lorena Barberia (University of São Paulo) and Guy D. Whitten, Texas A&M University
  • Interviewing and Multi-Methods Research, Melani Cammett (Harvard University)
  • Introduction to Spatial Analysis, Jonathan Phillips (University of São Paulo)
  • Predicting Elections, Cliff Young (IPSOS)
  • Survey Research Design, Soledad Artiz Prillaman (Nuffield College at Oxford University)

Module 2 (January 21 -25) (35 hours)  

  • The Philosophy of Science: Positivism and Beyond, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson (American University)
  • Advanced Issues in Quantitative Methods for Public Policy Analysis, Bruno Cautres (Sciences Po)
  • Advanced Research Design in Political Science:  From Modeling to Manuscript, Allyson Benton (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, Mexico City)  
  • Basics of Causal Case Study Methods, Derek Beach (University of Aarhus)
  • Basics of Multi-Method Research: Integrating Case Studies and Regression, Jason Seawright (Northwestern University)
  • Basics of Spatial Interdependence in Theory and Practice, Laron Williams (University of Missouri)
  • Fundamentals of Time Series Cross Section Analyses, Guy D. Whitten (Texas A&M University) and Lorena Barberia (University of São Paulo)
  • Mathematics for Social Scientists, Glauco Peres da Silva (University of São Paulo)
  • Survey Research Analysis, Soledad Artiz Prillaman (Nuffield College at Oxford University)

Module 3 (January 28 –February 1st) (35 hours)

  • Advanced Issues in Multi-Methods Research: Integrating Case Studies and Contemporary Methods for Causal Inference, Jason Seawright (Northwestern University)  
  • Advanced Time Series Cross-Section Analyses, Andy Phillips (University of Colorado at Boulder) and Lorena Barberia (University of São Paulo)  
  • An Introduction to Survey Experiments, Mark Pickup (Simon Fraser University)   
  • Making Causal Critiques, Jonathan Phillips (University of São Paulo)  
  • Methods and Problems in Political Philosophy, Herlinde Pauer-Studer (University of Vienna)
  • Process Tracing Case Studies, Derek Beach (University of Aarhus)

Several events were organized to celebrate the School’s 10th Anniversary. Gary King, Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, delivered his keynote address “How the News Media Activate Public Expression and Influence National Agendas” on Wednesday, January 16. A special 10th Anniversary Roundtable titled “What will Political Science look like in Ten Years’ Time?” was held with the participation of Gary King, Dirk Berg-Schlosser (Marburg and IPSA), Guy Whitten (Texas A & M) and Lorena G. Barberia (São Paulo) on Thursday, January 17th. During week two, John B. Londregan, Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, delivered the 10th Anniversary Distinguished Lecture on “Regime Type and the Extensive and Intensive Margins of Trade.” In week three, Mark Pickup (Simon Fraser) delivered the 10th Anniversary Distinguished Late-Afternoon Seminar on "Balance as a Pre-Estimation Test for Longitudinal Analysis." Laron Williams (Missouri) and Soledad Artiz Prillaman (Nuffield College at Oxford) also participated in an information session on “Applying to Graduate and Post-Doctoral Programs in the U.S. and Europe.”

A poster session including 26 presenters took place on Tuesday, January 29, 2019.  Three prizes were awared by a faculty committee chaired by Allyson Benton from the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE), Andrew Philips (Colorado at Boulder), and Jason Seawright (Northwestern). The IPSA-USP Summer School and Society for Political Methodology (Polmeth) Prize in Methodology was awarded to Natalia de Paula Moreira (São Paulo) for her poster on “Bias and Efficiency Gains in Compositional Dependent Variables in Static and Dynamic Scenarios.” The IPSA-USP Summer School and International Political Science Association (IPSA) Prize in Applied Methodology was awarded to Leonardo da Rocha Loures Bueno from the Fundação Getúlio Vargas for his poster on “Retrospective Voting in Brazil:  Short and Long-term Effects of São Paulo's Smart Card Policy.” The IPSA-USP Summer School and International Political Science Association (IPSA) Prize in Applied Methodology (honorable mention) was awarded to Thiago de Oliveira Meireles (São Paulo) for his poster titled “Do Political Parties Matter for Subnational International Activities? Evidence from Brazilian municipalities.”

Institutional Partners
The 2019 IPSA-USP Summer School was made possible with generous financial support from the Department of Political Science, the Institute of International Relations, the School of Philosophy, Letters and Humanities (FFLCH) and the Provost’s Office for Research at the University of São Paulo. We are grateful for the valuable support provided by FAPESP, CAPES and CNPq and IPSOS. The Summer School was also supported by the Center for Metropolitan Studies (CEM) and the Center for Comparative and International Studies (NECI) at the University of São Paulo. Stata and Nvivo provided software licensing for the computer laboratories.

Local Organization Committee
Lorena Barberia, Department of Political Science, University of São Paulo (Chair)
Jonathan Phillips, Department of Political Science, University of São Paulo
Glauco Peres da Silva, Department of Political Science, University of São Paulo

For further details on the School’s courses and instructors, financial aid, registration fees, and more, visit the website http://summerschool.fflch.usp.br or contact summeripsa@usp.br

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