Applications Invited: Summer Workshop on Quantitative Methods in Political Science

Lokniti - Programme for Comparative Democracy, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, in collaboration with Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla invites candidates to apply for a two week Summer Workshop on Research Methodology: Analyzing Quantitative Data on Indian Politics to be held at Shimla from Monday, 15th June 2009 to Saturday, 27th June 2009.
Research training in Political Science remains one of the weakest aspects of learning for any student in India. Keeping this in view we plan to bring together a group of young political scientists with the aim of providing them an opportunity to improve their skills in quantitative analysis. While some of our mid-career colleagues would be invited to attend the summer school, we will select candidates from across the country for the limited seats that are available through a process of competitive selection. In this Summer School there will be a special emphasis on making sense of quantitative data of both aggregate nature and survey data for analysis of Indian politics. The selected participants will be given a set of readings before they come to attend the workshop and will be expected to attend lectures and practical data analysis sessions. This is the Third Summer School being organized by CSDS and IIAS beginning in 2007. Some of the leading scholars working on empirical methods in Political Science have been involved in designing this summer school and will act as resource persons. These include Pradeep Chhibber (University of California at Berkeley), Peter deSouza (IIAS, Shimla), Irfan Nooruddin (Ohio State University), Yogendra Yadav (CSDS), Suhas Palshikar (University of Pune) and Sandeep Shastri (IACT).

• We invite the following categories of candidates to apply for this workshop:
• Teachers of Political Science in colleges and Universities who are working on empirical subjects and would benefit from further training.
• Research students of Political Science who are working on empirical themes for their M. Phil. or Ph. D. dissertations and can benefit from further training.
• Any other person (including those from outside Political Science and outside academia) who are interested in making sense of politics by analyzing quantitative data.

We would give preference to young scholars. We have only about 16 seats to be filled through selection and we expect a tough competition. Please send your detailed CV with a statement of research interest (those already registered for M. Phil. or Ph.D. should clearly mention the topic of dissertation along with a brief summary of the objectives and methodologies used) in about 500 words. Applicants should also visit our website http://www.lokniti.org/index.htm; access the questionnaire used for National Election Study 2004 and write a 500 word Note on a research question based on this questionnaire that interests them. Selection for the workshop will be made on the basis of the two write-ups submitted by candidates as mentioned above. The last date for receiving the nomination/application is 23rd March 2009. We will not entertain any nominations/applications received after the above-mentioned date.

The Summer School is sponsored by the IIAS and the Institute will meet the travel expenses (Train AC II or its equivalent) of the participant from his/her place of residence to Shimla both to and fro. IIAS will also provide free accommodation and food during the Summer School. Please note that this is a full time residential training course and candidates admitted to the workshop are expected to stay at the Institute and engage in full time work on all days during this period. Please send your nominations/applications by email to banasmita[at]gmail.com or by snail mail to:
The Co-director
Lokniti: Programme for Comparative Democracy
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054. India

Source: http://www.lokniti.org/summer_workshop_at_shimla2009.html