Social Sciences Courses

Owing to the ever-changing nature of warfare, the field of conflict studies requires an informed approach towards answering the question of why various actors resort to violent conflict. This summer school, closely linked with Uglobe's Intimacies of Remote Warfare programme and the Centre for Conflict Studies (CCS) of Utrecht University, equips scholars and professional practitioners alike with cutting-edge knowledge and transferable skills for mapping, analysing and responding to warfare in the 21st century: who is fighting and how do they relate to one another (actors); what are they fighting over and why (issues and interests); and how exactly are they fighting (technologies and practices).

This course will be provided in an online setting. The course will be a mixture of live online teaching and discussion and offline assignments and reading.

During this course, we discuss social scientific theories and empirical research on international migration, the socio-economic and cultural integration of immigrants and their children, and reactions of the host society. Migration has made European countries ethnically and culturally more diverse. While migrants try to find their way in a new and sometimes hostile environment, host populations also have to adapt to migrants and the new religious and cultural diversity they bring with them.

This course in ‘advanced survey design’ takes students beyond the introductory courses and will discuss the state of the art in both the design and the analysis of survey data. We discuss new ways to analyse text data and sensor data generated by modern surveys. Course participants must be proficient working with statistical software (Stata, SPSS or R). Course materials have been developed in R, but most exercises on days 1-3 is in SPSS or STATA.

This three day course will teach you advanced topics in multilevel modelling. The three-day course builds upon the contents of the other summer school course “Introduction to multilevel analysis”. It consists of three days with lectures in the morning and computer labs in the afternoon. After taking this course, you should be able to analyse more complex multilevel models and to interpret and report the results.

The summer school course 'Applied Multivariate Analysis' offers hands-on experience using SPSS for the most frequently encountered multivariate statistical techniques in the social and behavioural sciences. The emphasis is on applying multivariate techniques using the computer programme SPSS, and on how to interpret the SPSS output in substantive terms. During the course, we do not discuss the mathematical details of these techniques.

This course will teach you the theoretical basics of multilevel modelling and some important methodological and statistical issues. You will also learn how to analyse multilevel data sets with the HLM and Mplus programs, to interpret the output and to report the results. The benefits of multilevel analysis are discussed both in theory as with empirical examples. This course restricts to a quantitative (i.e. continuous) outcome variable. Categorical outcomes are part of the course Advanced Multilevel.

Changes in technology and society strongly influence modern survey research. This course covers the essentials of modern survey methodology, organised by the Department of Methodology and Statistics in collaboration with Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Central to the course is survey quality and the reduction of Total Survey Error (coverage, sampling, nonresponse, including questionnaire and mode effects), while balancing logistics and survey costs. Best practice guidelines for surveys from design to implementation, analysis and reporting will be discussed.

The course is based on a total survey error perspective and discusses the major sources of survey error. Participants will be presented with tools for detection and adjustment of such errors. Analysis methods are introduced using both SPSS and R. Topics include complex sampling, nonresponse adjustment, measurement error, analysis of incomplete data and advanced use of administrative data. Special attention will be given to the analysis of complex surveys that include weighting, stratification and design effects.

This is a five-day course on structural equation modeling (SEM) using Mplus. If you already know how to analyse your data in Mplus but want to learn more about what you are actually doing, and especially if you want to know more about advanced longitudinal analyses, this course is for you. The course consists of in-depth lectures on the fundamentals of Mplus and advanced longitudinal models.

We offer a 5-day course on how to perform basic SEM analyses using Mplus. The main objective of this course is to learn how to analyse several models with Mplus (e.g. path models, multiple group models, mediation and moderation, confirmatory factor analysis, and longitudinal models). No previous knowledge of Mplus is assumed, but prior knowledge of SEM, although not mandatory, will make this course more useful.

This course describes the stages involved in Bayesian analysis: specifying the prior and data models, deriving inference, model checking and refinement. We discuss prior and posterior predictive checking, and selecting a technique for sampling from a probability distribution. Other topics discussed are: approximate measurement invariance (a Bayesian method to assess comparability of data), evaluating hypotheses via the Bayes Factor and information criteria, and combining evidence from multiple studies addressing the same research question. Finally, we propose strategies for reproducibility and reporting standards, outlining the WAMBS-checklist (when to Worry and how to Avoid the Misuse of Bayesian Statistics).  

How can systemic drivers of global challenges be identified? What are transformations and how do they come about? How can different forms of experimentation and adaptive learning be used to achieve transformation? This one-week module focuses on the development of competencies for contemporary global leaders working to tackle global challenges. It is designed for programme coordinators, project leaders, strategists, and other individuals seeking to facilitate transformative solutions in their work. It uses both interdisciplinary theories and insights from practice to equip participants with the skills to critically understand complex global challenges and confront them in practice.

Welcome to the LANDac (the Netherlands Land Academy) Annual Summer School “Land Governance for Development”. Large-scale acquisition of land in the Global South has received a great deal of interest in the last few years. This course provides a multidisciplinary analysis of the ‘land rush’ within the more general context of land governance in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We will look at the history and drivers, the diversity of stakeholders and networks involved, the urgency of current challenges and innovative governance solutions. 

This summer, Utrecht University offers you a 'bridging' course in psychodiagnostics, in order to overcome deficiencies in psychodiagnostics and assessment for entering the master course Clinical Psychology. This summer course focusses on familiarizing oneself with theoretical backgrounds of psychodiagnostics, practicing skills necessary to master all stages of the diagnostic process (intake, formulating a diagnostic question, formulating hypotheses, selecting, scoring and interpreting methods and tools and finally reporting conclusions and recommendation).

This course introduces the basic and advanced concepts and ideas in text mining and natural language processing. In this course, students will learn how to apply text mining methods on text data and analyse them in a pipeline with machine learning and deep learning algorithms. The course has a strongly practical hands-on focus, and students will gain experience in using text mining on real data from social sciences, humanities, and healthcare and interpreting the results.

In this course, students will be introduced to the basics of generative linguistics, the theoretical framework evolved from and based on Noam Chomsky’s work. The formal tools of generative linguistics enable linguists to explore the complex and fascinating system underlying sentence structure and sentence meaning. The theory accounts for the creativity of human language and other characteristics that make it unlike the communication system of any other animal.

This course introduces the basics of (formal) semantics and first and second language (L1/L2) acquisition as well as the interface between them. Days 1 and 2 are devoted to the introduction of a broad panorama of acquisition theories, Day 3 provides an introduction to semantics and on Days 4 and 5 we look into a number of semantic case studies in acquisition.

Ask someone their opinion on bilingualism and you are likely to hear statements such as: 'learning two languages from birth confuses children and impairs their cognitive development', 'Bilingual children can't speak either of their two languages properly' or 'You can only become bilingual if you start acquiring your second language as a young child.' Though common currency among the general public, each of these statements is in fact a myth. In this course, you will discover why this is the case as we review some of the most important findings from the research on bilingual children.

This elementary to intermediate level course will provide the student with a basic knowledge of psycholinguistics, a research domain on the intersection of linguistics, psychology and neuroscience. Three major research topics in psycholinguistics will be presented: language comprehension, language production and (first) language acquisition. In addition, we will discuss language disorders, both acquired (aphasia) and innate (developmental language disorder; dyslexia).

This course is essential for experimental linguists. In this course you will learn about important aspects of a quantitative study design (research methodology), the basics of statistical (hypothesis) testing, and how methodology and statistics relate to each other. This discussion-based course will teach you to make funded decisions throughout the research process, and consequently conduct better research with valid and reliable outcomes.

In this course we will investigate sound in language from 5 different perspectives: alphabet (units), acoustics, articulation, prosody and learning. These complementary perspectives together show how language uses a relatively narrow range of sounds (although this range is broader than you might think!) but does so in a very intricate way. In addition, languages’ sound systems are intimately linked to other aspects of the linguistic system: meaning, sentence structure, the lexicon, and word structure, which are also studied within the Research Master’s in Linguistics programme. We will explore these intricacies and connections from the standpoint of (formal) linguistics.

Applications of text mining are everywhere: social media, web search, advertising, emails, customer service, healthcare, marketing, etc. In this course, students will learn how to apply text mining methods on text data and analyse them in a pipeline with statistical learning algorithms. The course has a strongly practical hands-on focus, and students will gain experience in using and interpreting text mining on data examples from humanities, social sciences, and healthcare.

The objective of the course is to provide students, that have a background in social, human or behavioral sciences, with an introduction to GIS (Geographic Information Systems). This course aims at highlighting the specific qualities of GIS regarding visualisation and combination of datasets with a spatial component. Several topics will be covered, such as introduction to ArcGIS 10.4 and a presentation of data and results.

This course focuses on analysis of outdoor movements in space and transport network-based distances. The objective is to provide students with insight in the principles of sense making of GPS Data in a GIS environment. Collection of travel/movement data is nowadays made easy through the use of GPS-loggers and Smartphones. This course aims to collect, clean and enrich these datasets with GIS by combining locational data with existing land use and transport datasets.

This is a four-day course on how to study dynamics in intensive longitudinal data, such as ambulatory assessments (AA), experience sampling method (ESM) data, ecological momentary assessments (EMA), real time data capture, observational data or electronic daily diaries. We provide a tour of diverse modeling approaches for such data and the philosophies behind them, as well as practical experience with these modeling techniques using different software packages (including R and Mplus).

If you expect to work with the software Mplus, this course can help you to get started! This course is a compact 1-day workshop on using Mplus to get you started. We will focus on how to get the syntax running; how to avoid common mistakes; how to interpret the output and how to deal with error messages. In the exercises you will run multiple regression and factor analysis models, which are the basis of many structural equation models in Mplus.

This 4-day course teaches you the basics in solving your own missing data problems appropriately. Participants will learn how to form imputation models, how to combine data sets, how to model non-response, how to use diagnostics to inspect the imputed values, how to obtain valid inference on incomplete data and how to avoid many of the pitfalls associated with real-life missing data problems.

R is rapidly becoming the standard platform for data analysis. This course offers an elaborate introduction into statistical programming in R. Students learn to operate R, form pipelines for data analysis, make high quality graphics, fit, assess and interpret a variety of statistical models and do advanced statistical programming. The statistical theory in this course covers t-testing, regression models for linear, dichotomous, ordinal and multivariate data, statistical inference, statistical learning, bootstrapping and Monte Carlo simulation techniques.

The course Data science: Data Analysis offers a range of techniques and algorithms from statistics, machine learning and data mining to make predictions about future events and to uncover hidden structures in data. The course has a strong practical focus; participants actively learn how to apply these techniques to real data and how to interpret their results. The course covers both classical and modern topics in data analysis.

Effective communication is key for high performing professionals. If you want to bring your communication skills to the next level and work on your personal development, then this course is here for you! Two experienced professionals teach you the most valuable skills they learned themselves over the past 15 years. This course takes you beyond the ‘basics’. You will amongst others learn the highlights from principle-based negotiation, empathic communication, critical analysis, influencing group dynamics and inspirational speaking.

Last year this course course was rated with a score of 9 out of 10 by the participants.

Are you an (aspiring) diplomat or peacebuilder? And do you have ideals for a better world? And would you like to work on your communication and personal leadership skills? Then this is the place for you! During this summer school a seasoned diplomat and an experienced peacebuilder, both with lots of training experience, will work with you on your need to know in order to contribute to making this world a safer, more peaceful and more sustainable place. Expect a fun and highly interactive training that is both about thinking and feeling.

What we do in the present is profoundly influenced by our expectations of our futures. The annual 'Futuring for Sustainability Summer School' is an interactive course, held from 5- 9 July 2021. During this one week course we teach students to understand how techniques of futuring contribute to realizing societal transformations towards sustainability: living well equitably within ecological means. But what does a sustainable world look like? In what type of sustainable future would you want to live? How can we prepare and collaboratively create a sustainable world? In the Futuring for Sustainability summer school, these are central questions.

This course provides students with theoretical knowledge on developmental psychopathology. Students acquire knowledge on most common problems in youth, age specific characteristics of psychopathology and developmental transactional explanatory models for youth psychopathology. Students will also acquire theoretical and applied knowledge on psychological assessment and diagnostic decision-making process. Students will get acquainted with some assessment instruments that can be used to test some ‘typical’ hypothesis in the Child and Youth clinical practice.

If necessary a modified (largely online) version of the course will be offered to future CCaAP master students. We will keep students timely informed. 

Please note: this is an online course. 

Global trends in Demographics and Migration is a two-week summer course that examines developments in global and regional changes in the population composition (declining birth rates and ageing) and migration policies today from interdisciplinary perspectives. The course aims at familiarizing students with a contemporary phenomenon that can be seen as one of the most outspoken expressions of globalization.

This course provides you with a challenging introduction to conflict resolution and mediation skills. The focus of the course is to familiarize you with the backgrounds of human conflict behavior and to practice skills that enable you to resolve your own conflicts and to act as a mediator in conflict between others. Important topics are your own conflict behavior, the mediation process, the skills and the attitude of the mediator.

Coloniality of knowledge, aesthetics and spirituality are areas of experience managed and controlled by major Western institutions. The combination of institutions and languages secured the belief in the universality of Western knowledge, aesthetics, beliefs and its peculiar 'rational' world-view. It also drove the appropriation and destitution of non-western knowledges, aesthesis and spiritualities. The seminar will be devoted to explore decoloniality as a praxis of reconstitution, of re-existence and the re-encounter with the communal. Learning to unlearn is a step towards disobedient delinking and the beginning of a walk towards re-making and re-learning ourselves in communal and decolonial paths of re-existence.

This train-the-trainer (TTT) summer school is aimed at teachers and lecturers teaching in English from all areas of education who want to become trainers in an international classroom. By the 'international classroom', we mean training in a CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) or EMI (English Medium Instruction) context. This practical course is for teachers or lecturers who want to become (more) skilled in training others in an international classroom and will focus on facilitating development in others.