In my view, the collective toolkit of the social sciences is uniquely suited to aid students of all backgrounds in attaining the theoretical and practical skills to navigate an increasingly complex world as engaged and critical citizens, voters, and consumers. Therefore, (while acknowledging the certain limits of the individual) I’m convinced that teaching social research has an important function in democratic societies, particularly so in times of massive disinformation campaigns, filter bubbles, and post-factual politics.
This conviction translates into my approach to teaching in that I strive to integrate theory, methodology, and evidence, assisting students in acquiring skills they can readily transfer to other classes but also their careers and personal lives. This particularly involves the practice of skills to not only obtain information but also to process and critically evaluate it.
Below are some of the courses I’ve offerered at the University of Cologne with links to course websites or syllabi.
Courses in the M.Sc. program
- Analysis of cross-sectional data (lecture with exercise)
- Design and analysis of quasi-experiments (lecture with exercise)
- Introduction to causal inference (lecture with exercise)
- Reproducible research on child and youth development (research lab)
- Social contagion (seminar course)
Courses in the B.Sc. program
- Discrimination in the labor market (seminar course)
- Family context and child development (seminar course)
Over the last few years, I have also offered workshops on the topics of causal inference and causal mediation analysis in different places:
- Introduction to causal inference, Aarhus Universitet (2021), CED (2017), LCC (2017)
- Causal mediation analysis, Gesis (2021, 2019, (2017), BIGSSS (2018)
- Graphical causal models, Gesis (2018)
- Kausalität und Evaluation, DJI (2015, 2016)
- Recent advances in causal inference, University of Edinburgh, AQMeN (2014)