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8 September 2026 Time 9am - 4pm

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Led by Professor Richard AldrichLink opens in a new window

This masterclass explores how researchers can use freedom of information requests, digital government archives, volunteer data preservation projects and traditional archival collections to investigate public policy, government activity and historical change. As governments increasingly operate through complex digital systems and public-private partnerships, researchers have access to unprecedented volumes of qualitative and documentary data.

The session examines the changing relationship between openness and secrecy in contemporary governance and considers how technological change, transparency initiatives and digital archives are reshaping research opportunities. Alongside these conceptual debates, participants will gain practical experience with key methods for identifying, accessing and analysing government records and archival materials.

The masterclass consists of three units, each combining a lecture with a practical exercise:

• Freedom of Information requests as a tool for research and data collection
• Digital archives, government datasets and volunteer preservation projects
• National archives and archival research in an era of digital transformation

Overall, the session equips researchers with both a conceptual understanding of transparency and secrecy and a practical toolkit for working with archival and documentary sources in data-rich research environments.

9 September 2026 Time 10am - 4pm

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Led by

From a nation’s population Census to public votes on TV talent show competitions, there are not many aspects of the social world that have not been covered by some type of survey or opinion poll. It’s likely that whatever your area of research, analysing secondary data could help you find out more about your topic.

Secondary data analysis uses data that has been collected by someone else, such as an international organisation (like UNESCO or the OECD), a national government (such as for the British government’s Crime Survey), or a research team. It allows researchers to use much larger-scale, and often higher-quality, data than they could collect themselves. Because many secondary data sets are free to use, novice researchers can undertake empirical research on a scale that would otherwise only be possible on a large, funded project.

This practical masterclass is aimed at doctoral researchers who are interested in exploring the potential offered by large-scale numerical secondary data to: generate research questions; provide a wider contextual background for their research; or to use secondary data as the main source of data for their thesis. You won’t need any statistical or mathematical expertise (or enthusiasm!). You’ll be taught how to search for, locate and retrieve datasets from the vast range of sources available both nationally and internationally. You will be encouraged to think about how best to use secondary datasets in your own research, and how you might combine primary and secondary data in your project.

10 September 2026 Time 9am - 4pm

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Led by

Social Network Analysis

Social network analysis is a theoretical and methodological paradigm that focuses on relationships between or among social entities. Such entities include individuals, organizations, neighbourhoods, etc. Relationships can include marriage, business ties, communication – in other words way more than a tweet! This course presents an introduction to advanced concepts, methods, and applications of social network analysis used in the social and behavioural sciences. The primary focus of these methods is the statistical analysis of relational data measured on populations of social actors. The course will provide an introduction to this kind of data, discuss general data collection and ethics issues, as well as the basic network intuition. Many well-cited networks papers will be used as examples. In the practical part, we will cover general descriptive measures for social networks (centrality, clustering, structural equivalence, dyad and triad censuses), as well as methods of comparing networks and basic statistical measures (QAP procedure, conditional uniform graph tests). This course is idea for those interested in getting their hands dirty with some social network analysis.

Computer Programs

The R statistical programming package is required to follow along with the course material. It is freely available at the website below. I suggest also downloading R Studio. This is not necessary, but helps to organize the R windows and is an easier interface. It is also free. In addition to the base packages you install with R, we will also use additional packages.

R (statistical programming language):

R Studio (a user interface that’s pretty nice and I will use in the workshop):

And the statnet, network, ndtv, sna, MASS and numderiv packages for R available from Cran.

Led by Dr Timothy MonteathLink opens in a new window

11 September 2026 Time 9:30 am - 4pm

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This workshop will explore data visualization as both a practice and a methodology. It will explore what visualisations are and how they operate. Participants will develop skills to think through what data visualization can bring to their research and how this can be put into practice. The workshop will compose of an introduction to principals of data visualization, sketching exercises for thinking creatively about how we work with and display data, and practical hands of work with data and software to create effective and high-quality data visualizations. Previous experience of data visualization or coding is not required for this class, but access to a laptop and the ability to install software is needed. We would like to encourage attendees bring their own datasets (where appropriate) or datasets of interest to work with and explore during the workshop. For those without a dataset to hand, we will provide several example datasets from across the social sciences for participants to work with.

14 September 2026 Time 10am - 5pm

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Led by Dr Alexandra JabbourLink opens in a new window

What are Large Language Models, and how can social scientists actually use them? This hands-on, five-hour workshop answers both questions. We start with the fundamentals of how modern AI language systems work, then move quickly to putting them to use in real research. Over the day, you'll explore word embeddings, LLM architecture, text classification, AI and archival research, and AI agents, working through practical code examples that you can adapt to your own projects. No coding background or prior experience with AI is assumed. By the end, you'll be able to evaluate LLM-based tools with a critical eye and start integrating them into your own research workflow.

15 September 2026 Time 10am - 5pm

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Led by Dr Alexandra JabbourLink opens in a new window

Reproducible research is no longer optional. Journals, funders, and collaborators increasingly expect work that others can rerun and verify. This hands-on, five-hour workshop gives social scientists the practical foundations to meet that standard. You'll learn how to organise a project so it stays clear months later, track every change with version control, weave code and writing together with tools like R Markdown or Quarto, and manage data and dependencies so your analysis runs the same way on any computer. Throughout, the focus is on habits you can adopt immediately. No coding background or prior experience with these tools is assumed, and you'll leave able to structure, document, and share a project that others can follow, understand, and reproduce.

17 September 2026 Time 10am - 5pm

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Led by Dr Alexandra JabbourLink opens in a new window

The internet is one of the richest sources of social data ever produced: parliamentary debates, press releases, court decisions, job postings, and institutional records are all available at scale to researchers willing to collect them systematically. This hands-on, five-hour workshop shows social scientists how, working entirely in R. You'll learn to collect data from web pages, iterate across multiple pages, and retrieve structured information from APIs, developing the skills to build and maintain your own research data systems. Each session pairs a short conceptual introduction with a lab in which you write and run real code against real sources. Some familiarity with R is helpful but not required.

18 September 2026 Time 10am - 3.30pm

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Led by , Fatima Alhaj Hasan and S. Arokia MaryLink opens in a new window

This interactive masterclass is designed for anyone who is interested in learning more about diary method, regardless of disciplinary orientation. Diary method involves participants tracking a phenomenon over time, recording repeated entries in a format that is designed by the researcher. Diaries can take the form of written, audio, video, collage and mixed formats, which means this is a versatile method that is useful for a range of settings and participant groups. Masterclass attendees do not need to have any prior knowledge or experience of diary method, but the session will also be of use to those who are working with diaries in their projects. The session aims to extend the methodological toolboxes of doctoral researchers, including for future projects beyond the doctorate. The session will include: an introduction to diary method, discussion of previously conducted projects using diary method in different contexts, interactive workshop activities on thinking through the design and use of diary method. The session is led by Prof Emily Henderson (Education Studies, SELCS & DEAR Centre, ¹û¶³´«Ã½), who is an international expert in diary method and has substantial experience using diary method in projects as well as supervising doctoral projects using the method and is founder and co-convenor of the international online community of practice called Diary Method Community (). Prof Henderson will be joined by two early career researchers, Fatima Alhaj Hasan and S. Arokia Mary, who have successfully deployed diary method in their doctoral research.

21 September 2026 Time 10am - 4pm

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Documents are an important, and sometimes overlooked, source of data in social science research. They offer valuable insights into institutions, organisations, policies, cultures, individuals and everyday social life. From government policy papers and legislation to organisational reports, meeting minutes, consultation responses, media articles, websites and archival materials, documents provide rich evidence that can be analysed in their own right or alongside other methods and data sources. This workshop introduces participants to documentary methods, exploring how documents can be used as data and how different analytical approaches can help us to answer a range of social research questions.

Designed for doctoral researchers across the social sciences, the session is suitable for anyone considering using documentary sources and policy analysis approaches in their research, whether as a primary method or in combination with interviews, observations or other forms of data. No prior experience of documentary analysis is required.

Through a combination of introductory information, discussion and practical activities, participants will explore different approaches to documentary and policy analysis, develop skills in critically analysing these sources, and consider issues of rigour, quality and reflexivity. By the end of the workshop, participants will be better equipped to design and undertake documentary research as part of their own doctoral research projects.

22 September 2026 Time 10am - 5pm

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Led by Dr Alexandra JabbourLink opens in a new window

Maps are a powerful way to explore and communicate social data. This hands-on, five-hour workshop is a gentle introduction to GIS and open-source mapping for social scientists, starting from the basics and building up step by step. You'll learn how to create your own geographic data, how to find and evaluate spatial data available online, and how to filter datasets and explore the relationships between places and patterns. You'll also learn what makes a map clear and effective, so your results are easy to read and honest about what they show. Each session pairs a short introduction with a lab where you build real maps from real data. No prior GIS or coding experience is needed.

29 September 2026 Time 10am - 4pm

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Led by and Professor Adrian BlackledgeLink opens in a new window

Linguistic Ethnography combines ethnographic research with detailed analysis of language and social interaction to understand how language shapes, and is shaped by, everyday social life. This interactive masterclass introduces participants to the theoretical foundations, research design, data collection methods and analytical approaches that support linguistic ethnographic research across a wide range of settings.

Drawing on examples from schools, libraries, city markets, sporting environments, policy contexts and community settings, the session explores how empirical knowledge is produced through the collection and interpretation of multiple forms of qualitative data. Participants will examine the practical use of fieldnotes, audio and video recordings, interviews and discourse analysis, while also considering the ethical dimensions of conducting ethnographic research.

The masterclass combines keynote presentations with practical, hands-on activities. Participants will undertake their own observational fieldwork, produce fieldnotes, and discuss their observations in small groups. They will analyse transcripts and fieldnotes before exploring how these can be transformed into creative ethnographic outputs, including playscripts and poetry. The session also introduces contemporary developments in the field, including relational ethics, Southern epistemologies, arts-based methods and beyond-representational approaches to research.

The session is suitable for postgraduate researchers and early career researchers interested in qualitative methods, ethnographic research, discourse analysis, language in society, and innovative approaches to analysing and representing qualitative data.