ANR’s Summer Schools Are a Great Success

Another one of “first” laboratory ventures, summer schools, were a great success. Dubbed TMSA (“Theory and Methods of Social network Analysis”), they became known as TMSA-I and TMSA-II, as after careful consideration, a decision was made to hold not one, but two summer schools. One was dedicated to the introduction to social network analysis (SNA) for those who were not familiar with network methodology but wanted to start using it in their research activities, and another – to more advanced SNA methods for more advanced SNA users. Both schools were united by a common structure: lectures on theory building, methodology of SNA, project work, and hands-on experience with SNA software.

Another one of “first” laboratory ventures, summer schools, were a great success. Dubbed TMSA (“Theory and Methods of Social network Analysis”), they became known as TMSA-I and TMSA-II, as after careful consideration, a decision was made to hold not one, but two summer schools. One was dedicated to the introduction to social network analysis (SNA) for those who were not familiar with network methodology but wanted to start using it in their research activities, and another – to more advanced SNA methods for more advanced SNA users. Both schools were united by a common structure: lectures on theory building, methodology of SNA, project work, and hands-on experience with SNA software.

 

The first school was held in July in Moscow; it had 36 participants from 5 countries and all four of HSE’s campuses. It focused on the basic ideas of SNA and the fact that network analysis theory, tools, and methods can be applied to a wide range of phenomena across multiple disciplines. The school was centered around developing a project from scratch, and in preparation for the school, lab employees created 27 individual reading folders in a variety of disciplines, based on school participants’ stated research interests. SNA methods were taught by Stanley Wasserman, and theory and hands-on software work – by lab researchers. The school continued a month later in St. Petersburg, where participants learned more advanced network analysis methods and dived deeper into their projects.  The basic structure of the school remained the same, but this time around, students had more time to devote to their projects with group work and individual presentations.

 

The impression from the both events was overwhelmingly positive. Not only the (anonymous) feedback indicated that schools were well planned, organized, and received by the participants, but some of the students have asked to join the lab as researchers. They are now a part of the lab, and are continuing to work on the projects they’ve started during TMSA.