Past Events
SSRMC Open House
Date: Friday, September 9, 2016
Time: 2:00-5:00pm
Place: SSRMC
Reveley Visit
Reveley VisitDate: Tuesday, April 19th, 2016
Time: 4:00pm
Place: Social Science Research Methods Center
On Tuesday, April 19th, the SSRMC welcomed President Reveley for a tour. The dedicated students of the SSRMC showed off all the hard work and research they have done over the year.
Photos from the Event:
The Use and Abuse of Mechanical Turk: A Panel Discussion with Harvard Professor Joshua Kertzer
Date: Friday, April 1, 2016
Time: 3:00-4:00pm
Place: Miller 1082
Want to learn more about crowd-sourcing your research? Curious about the crossroads of ethics and political science research? Come by Miller 1082 on April 1st from 3-4 pm to hear a panel discussion on the ethics of using Mechanical Turk, a crowd sourcing tool commonly used in the field of political science and other social sciences. Government Professors Marcus Holmes, Dan Maliniak, and Jaime Settle, along with Philosophy Professor Matthew Haug, will be discussing the uses and unethical abuses of this tool with Joshua Kertzer, Assistant Professor of Government at Harvard University. This event is sponsored by the Reves Center.
GOVT 301 Class Visit
Date: Wednesday, March 23rd, 2016
Time: 10:00-12:00pm
Place: Social Science Research Methods Center
Photos from the Event:
Survey Tools Workshop
Date: Monday, March 14th, 2016
Time: 5:00-7:00pm
Place: Blow 332
We will provide an introduction to the software program to which W&M maintains an institutional license, Qualtrics. Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the basics of the program ahead of time, and we will demonstrate a variety of its functionalities, including question and response randomization, recoding response options, automatic emailing capabilities, basic branching techniques, survey flow, usability, and testing/debugging. We will then address topics related to using Qualtrics as a platform to collect your data, including tips about how to interface with crowd-sourced platforms like Mechanical Turk.
Marketing Research Skills to Potential Employers
Date: Monday, February 22, 2016
Time: 4:00-5:00pm
Place: The Career Center
Join the SSRMC at the Career Center an informational session on how to best advertise what you have learned while conducting undergraduate social science research to the professional world and how to navigate the research-oriented job search process effectively. We will also be Skyping in recent W&M graduates who can give you first-hand advice about using research in post-graduate life.
A Discussion with Dr. Eric Grynaviski
Date: Friday, November 6th, 2015
Time: 2:00pm
Place: Social Science Research Methods Center
Dr. Grynaviski, a professor of Political Science and International Relations at George Washington University will be on campus to participate in discussion with SSRMC affiliated honors students this Friday, November 6th in the SSRMC at 2pm. Dr. Grynaviski is an expert in the relationship between theories developed in sociology/social theory and contemporary debates in International Relations. His research methods employ case studies and archival research. All affiliated honors students are encouraged to attend.
Visit this link for more information on Dr. Grynaviski
Studying Neuroscience, Politics, and the Law: A Conversation with Professor Francis Shen
Date: Friday, October 30. 2015
Time: 2:00-3:30pm
Place: Morton 302
What can the brain sciences teach social scientists about the study of politics and law? Come enjoy a lively discussion of that question, and others, with Professor Francis Shen, a leading expert on these topics. Professor Shen is Associate Professor of Law and the McNight Land-Grant Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. Shen holds a J.D. and also a Ph.D. in government and social policy, both from Harvard University. In his scholarly work, he conducts empirical and interdisciplinary research at the intersection of law and the brain sciences. Among his numerous publications, he is co-author of the first law coursebook on law and neuroscience (info is here:http://www.psy.
Web Scraping Workshop
Date: Monday, October 19th & Wednesday, October 21st, 2015
Time: 3:00-5:00pm
Place: Swem Library
Professor Van der Veen in the Government Department will be teaching a hands-on web scraping workshop next Monday the 19th and Wednesday the 21st from 3 to 5 pm.
Web scraping is the automated gleaning of information from websites. This skills has many different applications in the research world and would make a great addition to any aspiring researcher’s ‘toolbox’ of skills.
Both sessions will meet in Swem Library. The Monday meeting will take place in the Cox Classroom, a brand-new classroom in the Media Center (basement) of Swem. Wednesday’s meeting will be in the Learning Center, located on the first floor, straight back if walking in the main entrance.
Successfully scraping data from the web requires the use of a number of different computer programming packages. In order to web scrape at the workshop please bring your laptop with the required programs (see below) already installed.
Please go to this link and follow the instructions through the entirety of the document to ensure all programs are working before the first workshop. If at any point you struggle to install the programs contact Professor Van der Veen at amvanderveen@wm.edu.
Career Center Workshop on Marketing Research Experience
The Career Center put together a short presentation on marketing research experience on a resume and Linkedin page and in interviews. This prezi is by no means comprehensive, but it does provide a good synopsis of their advice for these topics. For more information, please see the Career Center’s website, where you can sign up for a mock interview and have your resume reviewed.