Laboratory for Comparative Social Research of the National Research University Higher School of Economics announces next Summer School on the theory and methodology of comparative social studies «Causal Models and Structural Equations». The School will be held from July 1 to July 14, 2012, in the suburb of St. Petersburg. The aim of the Summer School is to develop skills and improve research competencies of master students, PhD students and young researchers by interaction with the world's leading researchers.

The summer school will have 2 parts: lectures and seminar on Structural equation modeling (SEM) and  presentation of personal projects of the participants.

The leading lecturer is prof. Peter Schmidt, famous methodologist, who worked at major research centers and universities of Mannheim and Hamburg (Germany), codirector of SCR at HSE. Peter Schmidt has big experience as a lecturer in the famous international summer schools (Essex Summer School, GESIS Spring Seminar in Cologne, Swiss Summer School in Lugano, SRC Summer School). This course is based on M-Plus program and requires some readings beforehand.

There would be also provided a back-up course by prof. Eduard Ponarin, director of the LCSR. His course will be optional for helping students to grasp the basic techniques of the Structural Equation Modeling with R.

The participants’ presentation part includes the presentations of progress reports on individual projects of LCSR members, presentation of new projects and public lectures from the guest professors.

• Program (July 30, 2012)
• Course Outline by Peter Schmidt

Key issues (if you need full-text versions of papers listed below in PDF-format, please, send a request to hse.lcss@gmail.com):

1. E. Davidov, P.  Schmidt, and S. Schwartz (2008)  Bringing Values Back In: The
   Adequacy of the European Social Survey to Measure Values in 20 Countries // Public Opinion
   Quarterly 72 (3), pp. 420–445
2. E. Davidov, and P. Schmidt (2007) Are values in the Benelux countries comparable? Testing for equivalence with the European Social Survey 2004-5 // Working Paper 
3. E. Davidov, B. Meuleman, J. Billiet, and P. Schmidt (2008) Values and Support for Immigration: A Cross-Country Comparison //   European Sociological Review 24(5), pp. 583-599.
4. P. Schmidt, and J. Herrmann (2011) Factor Analysis // International Encyclopedia of Political Science Sage
5. P. Schmidt, and J. Herrmann (2011) Structural equation models // International Encyclopedia of Political Science, Sage.

The LCSR will pay for the travel costs and accommodation for the selected participants (economy class air ticket and double room accommodation). Working language is English. The program will be provided soon on this website.

To apply for summer school participation you need to submit:

• Curriculum Vitae,
• Сovering letter with the chosen course (not exceeding 400 words),
• Abstract of the research project (not exceeding 1000 words)
• Description of the data you are going to use during P.Schmit practical course (not exceeding 200 words): 

Application should be done in MS Word, 12 font, Times New Roman, 1.5 spacing, standard margins.

Applications are accepted electronically via e-mail (hse.lcss@gmail.com), the deadline is May 10, 2012. The results will be announced on May 20, 2012.