Cross-National Studies: Interdisciplinary Research and Training Program

The main training goals of the CONSIRT Program are to (a) continue our international Summer School dedicated to study abroad and revolving around methodological training in cross-national studies, (b) develop a series of special courses to be taught year-round at OSU, IFiS, and GSSR concerning training in cross-national, comparative methods and quantitative analysis, including traditional and distance-learning education formats, and (c) institute a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization (GIS) in Cross-National Studies.

Interdisciplinary Cross-National Studies Specialization

The Graduate School for Social Research (GSSR) introduces a new specialization for selected doctoral students, Interdisciplinary Cross-National Studies, ICNS. This specialization has been prepared in cooperation with the Cross-National Studies: Interdisciplinary Research and Training Program - CONSIRT, established by the Departments of Sociology and Political Science, The Ohio State University (DS OSU and DPS OSU, respectively) and the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, and the Graduate School of Social Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFiS PAN and GSSR PAN, respectively). The aim of ICNS is to provide doctoral students with rigorous training in quantitative and qualitative cross-national studies and prepare them for new job opportunities on the academic and non-academic international labor market. As part of its four year program, ICNS exposes students to thorough training and first-hand research in social issues in cross-national perspective. Successful completion of the specialization leads to certification by IFiS – CONSIRT. Doctoral students within ICNS are expected to participate in the CONSIRT activities, including cross-national collaboration.

Please download the GSSR ICNS flyer (PDF) for more information.

The CONSIRT Program will continue and expand upon its study abroad tradition for OSU students. The first step was launching a summer school dedicated to training students in how to conduct cross-national studies. The Graduate School of Social Research (GSSR) at IFiS hosted the first Summer School was Ohio State Summer School in Social Sciences “Central and Eastern Europe in Comparative Perspective: Assessing Social and Political Change” July 3 – 31, 2008. The second Summer School was held June 17 to July 19, 2009, and was visited by Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee. The third Summer School will be held June 15 to July 14, 2010. For more information, see the Ohio State Summer School in Social Sciences in Warsaw, Poland website.

Training in cross-national, comparative methods in the social sciences consist of statistical techniques dealing with assessment of functional equivalence of measurements, issues of countries’ heterogeneity in size and internal variability, case-dependency problems, and multi-level and longitudinal analysis. During this course, students are encouraged to apply the learned methodology in their own research toward a publishable paper and/or thesis or dissertation work.

As part of the training, students are offered the unique opportunity of working within the Research Team on Comparative Social Inequality, a unit of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, the Polish Academy of Sciences. The Research Team specializes in bringing together major cross-national surveys, namely the World Value Survey, the International Social Survey Program and the European Social Survey, with region-specific data, such as Social Stratification in Eastern Europe after 1989, Poverty, Ethnicity and Gender in Eastern Europe, and the Polish Panel Survey, with a focus on its harmonization with panel data-sets covering other countries. Substantively, these surveys cover such topics as social structure and occupational careers, unemployment and underemployment, voting behavior, democracy and democratic values, and attitudes related to politics, the state, and religion.

We plan to conduct the Summer School in Warsaw every year. It is open to the US students through the OSU Study Abroad Program, and to students from other countries directly through the GSSR in Warsaw. Both institutions, OSU and GSSR, advertise the Summer School broadly.

Future Training Projects

Special courses are being designed to be taught year-round in academic institutions, including OSU, IFiS, and GSSR, will focus on methodological, theoretical and substantive issues in cross-national studies.

The CONSIRT Program is in the process of creating a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization (GIS) in Cross-National Studies, designed specifically for graduate students at OSU. Substantive and methodological courses in comparative sociology and political science are to be taught mainly at OSU, though one mandatory course, the workshop in data analysis, taught at GSSR in Warsaw, Poland. Study abroad experience will be required for obtaining the specialization.