Courses in the Fall Semester 2024/25

This lecture introduces students to key topics on political violence. We will cover classic and current debates on interstate warfare, civil war, insurgencies and armed groups, coup d’états, terrorism and state repression. Given the vast amount of research in this broad field, we will not be able to cover all aspects in depth, but you will be equipped with key insights and conceptual and analytical frameworks and tools to better understand characteristics and causes of different forms of political violence.

The objective of this course is to introduce students to central areas of international relations research through a gender lens. We will survey key topics such as international determinants of gender inequality, gendered norms of protection, cooperation and violence, or the role of gender in political leadership, diplomacy, and political violence. Furthermore, we will discuss potential implications of „gender-blindness“ in quantitative political science research and related issues of gender-sensitive measurement and data collection. Throughout the course, particular emphasis will be on familiarizing students with the foundations of academic writing and independent research. After completing this course, students will be able to i) critically assess and reflect potentials and pitfalls of the gender and IR literature, and ii) to identify and sketch out a research project within the broad area of gender and IR.
 

The objective of this course is to introduce students to the basic statistical concepts and programming skills needed to address social science questions in the fields of international relations and conflict research. The course offers a hands-on introduction to the free and versatile software R as well as the tidyverse, a system of R packages for data manipulation, exploration and visualization. Using real-world data from publications in IR and conflict research, students will go through each step of the statistical analysis, from preprocessing and preparing the data, to (visually) exploring quantities of interest, to estimating statistical models, visualizing results, as well as interpreting and evaluating results in the context of the respective research question.  

After completing this course, students will be able to i) preprocess the data required to answer their own research questions, ii) identify the correct statistical model for different types of data as well as iii) justify their decision, iv) correctly specify and implement models in R and v) to describe and visualize the results as well as to evaluate and interpret them in light of the research question. The goal is to provide students with the necessary foundational skills to perform their own analyses (e.g., for their BA theses) by transferring the acquired skills to their research interests and to become critical consumers of statistical claims made in the news, policy reports and academic research.
 

In this seminar, we will explore how, and to what end, violence is practiced. Our primary goal is an in-depth understanding of the causes and consequences of political violence. We will address directly some of the biggest and oldest questions in regard to political violence: Why are some societies prone to civil conflict, while others are not? Why do individuals participate in collective violence? How, if at all, do the perpetrators of political violence justify their actions? Why are some societies prone to political violence, while others are not? How, and under what conditions, does violence end? Various methodological approaches, both qualitative and quantitative, will be introduced with regard to the final paper. The seminar will prepare students for writing their final paper and provide the opportunity to take a closer look at the various datasets commonly used in international relations and empirical methods researchers use when studying armed conflicts.

In this seminar, we will cover various forms of armed conflict in order to achieve an in-depth understanding of the causes and consequences such as, rebellion, civil war and terrorism. Our primary goal is an in-depth understanding of the causes and consequences of armed conflicts. We will analyse, compare, and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of international relations theories and concepts. Various methodological approaches, both qualitative and quantitative, will be introduced with regard to the final paper. The seminar will prepare students for writing their final paper and provide the opportunity to take a closer look at the various datasets commonly used in international relations and empirical methods researchers use when studying armed conflicts.

In this seminar, we engage with contemporary research on protests and social movements in authoritarian contexts. While the study of protests and social movements originally emerged in the context of western industrialized democracies, there has been an increased scholarly interest for the study of contentious politics in countries like China, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Russia, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Sudan, Uganda, Haiti, Venezuela, etc. Due to a series of political developments and methodological innovation, the study of protests and social movements has been expanded to include a broader range of social, economic, and political contexts. How does this literature inform our understanding of protests? Does it challenge or confirm existing theories and concepts? We will address these questions (among others) and discuss existing approaches to answer them.

The seminar contains four parts. In the first part, we will look at the key concepts for the study of protests in authoritarian regimes. In the second part of the seminar, we will explore some of the key debates on the origins of protest movements and which factors facilitate mobilization for contentious collective action. The third part of the seminar deals with topics concerning protest dynamics including the repertoire of protest movements (non-violence vs. violence), the various state responses to protests, and the international dimensions of contentious politics. The course concludes with broader discussions on the impact of protests in non-democratic regimes and a reflection on what has been learned during the seminar.

The seminar will put particular emphasis on immersive learning techniques and will employ practical activities in the form of games and simulations to have students critically engage with the seminar material.