This course is an upper class seminar that guides students in carrying out original quantitative social science research. The course is based on the “problem solving “approach to social science, as articulated here: link. The problem theme of the seminar for this semester was “underrepresentation” (e.g., “underrepresentation of youth in political institutions”, where such underrepresentation could be characterized in descriptive or substantive terms). Over the course of the semester, students define their focal “underrepresentation problem” in normative/analytical terms and then also through descriptive data analysis (using R and RStudio), investigate explanations and mechanisms for why the problems persist, using basic associational and causal inference methods (again, in R/RStudio), and then finally derive implications for intervention on the basis of their empirical findings and with reference to existing literature. The course operates through cycles of proposal development for each stage of the research process, with each cycle culminating in a presentation to the class. Below, you will find the syllabus and course schedule.
The course provides a model of problem-drive social science for students. Students focus on societal problems that they care about, and then use rigorous social scientific methods to analyze them. In teaching this course over the years, I have found that the problem oriented approach allows students to recognize the importance of getting the measurement, data analysis, and interpretation right and to see how social science can play a role in the development of novel policies.