MY580 Methods Short Courses

About our MY580 Methods Short Courses

We offer short courses under MY580 on a variety of specific and advanced topics in qualitative and quantitative research methods.

These courses are primarily aimed at PhD students but may be taken by Masters students. The short courses are non-examinable, self-contained and may be attended independently. They take place in Winter and Spring terms, with the schedule and course outline available below and on the MY580 Moodle page.

Sign up via Eventbrite, which opens for bookings two weeks prior to the corresponding course.

2025/26 MY580 Sessions
Session details	Title
Date: Wednesday 28 January 2026 Mode: In person only Time: 10:00 - 15:00 (12:00 - 13:00 Lunch)	Agent-Based Modeling by Dr Milena Tsvetkova
Date: Thursday 5 - Friday 6 February 2026 Mode: Hybrid, online via Zoom and in person Time: 10:00 - 15:00 (12:00 - 13:00 Lunch)	Bayesian statistics by Professor Douglas Leasure
Date: Monday 23 February 2026 Mode: In person only Time: 10:00 - 15:00 (12:00 - 13:00 Lunch)	Questionnaire and question design (survey methods) by Dr Sally Stares
Date: Tuesday 4 March 2026 Mode: In person only Time: 10:00 - 15:00 (12:00 - 13:00 Lunch)	Applied large language models for social science research by Dr Zach Dickson
Date: Monday 23 March 2026 Mode: In person only Time: 10:00 - 15:00 (12:00 - 13:00 Lunch)	How to write a qualitative methods section for academic manuscripts by Dr Aliya Rao
Date: Wednesday 1 April 2026 Mode: Hybrid, online via Zoom and in person Time: 10:00 - 15:00 (12:00 - 13:00 Lunch)	Fieldwork preparation and logistics: funding, budgets, ethics by Dr Florian Kern
Date: Wednesday 6 May 2026 Mode: In person only Time: 10:00 - 15:00 (12:00 - 13:00 Lunch)	Small-n and comparative case study design by Dr Raphael Susewind
Date: Wednesday 20 May 2026 Mode: Hybrid, online via Zoom and in person Time: 10:00 - 15:00 (12:00 - 13:00 Lunch)	Modern Text Analysis and NLP with Python by Dr Patrick Gildersleve
Date: Wednesday 3 June 2026 Mode: Hybrid, online via Zoom and in person Time: 10:00 - 15:00 (12:00 - 13:00 Lunch)	Applied Observational Causal Inference with Geographic Data by Dr Daniel de Kadt
Date: Tuesday 16 June 2026 Mode: In person only Time: 10:00 - 15:00 (12:00 - 13:00 Lunch)	Measuring policy positions of political agents by Emeritus Professor Michael Laver

Historically, one of the main reasons for the establishment of the Department of Methodology was the identification by the Economic and Social Research Council of a 'methods gap' in the training of research students. Among the stipulated requirements was a set of research skills for each discipline. Given the considerable overlap in these research skills across departments, the Department of Methodology was established to meet some of these needs efficiently.

If you are an ESRC funded student then we require your name, email and course to report your attendance to your home institution, please click here to see the privacy notice that this data collection is subject to.

As part of the Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) network, the department reserves a small number of places on MY580 short courses for non-LSE external visitors. Interested parties can also sign up via Eventbrite under external ticket admissions (non-LSE).

Please ensure to check out the Frequently Asked Questionssection below. For queries about our short courses, please email methodology.comms@lse.ac.uk.
Browse our past short courses and keep up to date with upcoming ones on our Eventbrite page.

I cannot find the Methods Short Courses schedule/ information/ sign-up link.
Any news relating to the Methods Short Courses will be updated on this page. If you cannot find the relevant courses or schedule that you are looking for, please stay tuned. Please note that sign-up links will only become available two weeks prior to the course. Thank you for your patience.

I am an LSE student, where can I find the relevant details for the courses?
Please visit our MY580 Moodle page.

I am not an LSE student; can I still sign up for Methods Short Courses?
Yes, our courses are open to the public but spaces are limited. Please sign up via our Eventbrite page. Be sure to follow our Eventbrite page so you don't miss our public events.

When do our Methods Short Courses run?
You can find a list of our upcoming courses on this page or on our Eventbrite page. Our courses run during the Winter Term and Spring Term. Please find the LSE Term dates here.

Where are these courses held?
Most courses are held in-person at CON 1.01, Department of Methodology, Connaught House, 65 Aldwych, London WC2B 4DS unless stated otherwise.
Some short courses are delivered in a hyrbid format. These sessions will be clearly stated above and on the Eventbrite sign up page.

I can no longer attend the courses I signed up for.
Please diligently cancel your ticket on Eventbrite to allow another waitlisted participant to join.

Will I get a certificate for attending these courses?
Attendance Certificates are available upon request, please contact our team at methodology.comms@lse.ac.uk

The course I signed up for has been cancelled.
Apologies for the inconvenience caused. Should any course be cancelled, a member of staff will contact you by email and let you know whether the course has been rescheduled or not.