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Level
Level: Introductory
Member rate £572.50
Non-Member rate £1,145.00
Early bird discount available until 14 December 2026.
Save £45.00 Loyalty discount applied automatically*
Save 5% on each additional course booked
* If you attended a qualifying previous Methods School in 2026, you qualify for £45.00 off your course fee.
Date: Monday 22 – Friday 26 February 2027
Time: 09:30–12:30 CET
This interactive course uses advanced pedagogical tools and is designed for master's-level students and above. It runs as three-hour live sessions on Zoom over five days, with course materials and pre-course readings available on our Learning Management System at least two weeks before the start. Office hours are also available for one-to-one consultations on your own project.
The course is limited to 18 participants, ensuring that the teaching team can address the individual needs of each participant.
This course offers an introduction to Comparative Historical Analysis (CHA) through interactive lectures and discussions. Designed for advanced master's students and beyond. It combines theoretical foundations, practical solutions, and disseciton of key works in the field.
By the end of this course, you will have a strong understanding of what Comparative Historical Analysis is, how to implement it in your research, including: process tracing, path dependency, case selection, periodisation, and project design.
Upon completing the course, you will be able to design a comparative historical study in terms of posing relevant research questions or puzzles, identifying suitable sources of evidence, and weaving history and theory together into coherent and plausible explanations.
3 ECTS credits awarded for engaging fully in class activities.
1 additional ECTS credit awarded for completing a post-course assignment.
Daniel Ritter is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Stockholm University, specialising in revolutions and social movements. He received his doctoral training at the University of Texas at Austin and has held postdoctoral positions at the European University Institute in Florence and at Stockholm University. Prior to returning to Stockholm University in 2016, he was Assistant Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham.
He is the author of The Iron Cage of Liberalism: International Politics and Unarmed Revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa (Oxford University Press, 2015), Social Movement and Civil War: When Protests for Democratization Fail with Donatella della Porta, Teije Hidde Donker, Bogumila Hall, and Emin Poljarevic (Routledge, 2018), and On Revolutions: Unruly Politics in the Contemporary World, co-authored with Colin Beck, Mlada Bukovansky, Erica Chenoweth, George Lawson, and Sharon Nepstad (Oxford University Press, 2022). In 2017, he was the recipient of Stockholm University's Award for Good Teaching.
At the risk of sounding cliché (or, even worse, flaky), Comparative Historical Analysis is in many ways more than a method – it is an approach to understanding and analysing the social world. Furthermore, it is a craft. Unlike many other methods, there is thus no set of skills and techniques that, once mastered, will allow a researcher to do comparative historical analysis. Rather, each practitioner of the method must learn from the great “exemplars” that constitute the method’s canon.
Consequently, the course will combine interactive lectures that emphasise theoretical and practical components of the method with book seminars that dissect key contributions in the tradition. These will be delivered through Zoom.
Introduction to Comparative Historical Analysis: Origins, logics, and exemplars.
Key aspects of Comparative Historical Analysis: Process tracing, path dependency, and theory building.
The Comparative Historical Research Process: A practical guide.
First book seminar.
Second book seminar.
No particular previous knowledge is required, although you should come to the course having already read the course material and ready to fully engage with it. It will be assumed that you have an interest in historical processes and theory building, both of which are central to the logic of Comparative Historical Analysis.
The course includes three hours of live teaching each day for five days, alongside readings and other learning activities.
Once you have registered and paid, you will receive access to our Learning Management System (LMS) approximately two weeks before the course start date. Course materials, including pre-course readings, will be available here. Allow approximately 20 hours per week before the course to review the materials and complete readings and any pre-course tasks.
During the course week, you should allow approximately two to three hours per day for preparation and assignments, in addition to the live teaching sessions.
The course offers the opportunity to earn three ECTS credits. To earn a fourth credit, you will need to complete a post-course assignment involving approximately 25 hours of work.
This course description may be subject to subsequent adaptations (e.g. taking into account new developments in the field, participant demands, group size, etc.). Registered participants will be informed at the time of change.
By registering for this course, you confirm that you possess the knowledge required to follow it. The instructor will not teach prerequisite items. If in doubt, please contact us before registering.