Big Questions, Big Data: Researching Societies in Transition

Course goals

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Critically reflect on how historians use and present (quantitative) data.
• Formulate a research question with sub-questions and select the most relevant sources and methods to answer it.
• Search for appropriate data to answer specific questions.
• Distinguish between and apply different methods of analysing and visualizing data, and apply them to your own research.
• Present your research results in both written and verbal format.
• Formulate, receive and incorporate feedback both from peers and seminar teachers.

Content

This course aims to familiarize you with quantitative research as well as with the use of (large) historical datasets. You will work in small groups to write their own research reports, in which they analyse a particular economic or social historical development in a geographical location of their choice based on quantitative data. The mandatory literature and lectures are intended to inspire your own research. These will show how other historians answer their research questions by using quantitative analyses, and what the benefits and pitfalls of such methods are.

Additional information

Please note: the time slot shown here is not yet final and may still be modified until the 3rd Wednesday in September.