Dates: June 16 - July 11, 2008
Application Deadline: February 29, 2008
Website: www.poli.duke.edu/eitm

Call for Participants

Duke University will host the seventh annual Summer Institute on EITM: Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models this summer, June 16th through July 11th , 2008.  Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), this program seeks to leverage the complementarity between formal models and empirical methods.   EITM is training a new generation of scholars to integrate theoretical models more closely, effectively, and productively with empirical evaluation of those models.   The Summer Institutes are highly interactive training programs for advanced graduate students and junior faculty.  They are led by teams of scholars from across the discipline who are working at the forefront of such empirical-theoretical integration.

Application Process:  Deadline February 29, 2008

We welcome applications from advanced graduate students who have passed all qualifying exams, preferably with a completed dissertation prospectus or plan but not yet at writing-up stages. Graduate students will benefit most from the program if they are committed to using both theoretical models and empirical data in their dissertations. They should have some training in both formal methodology and quantitative analysis -- and advanced training
in at least one of these areas.  We also welcome application from junior faculty looking to improve their defended dissertation in the direction that incorporates EITM, or who are embarking on an EITM-like post-dissertation project.  We will base admission substantially on the quality and potential of research proposed in the application.  We intend to accept about 25 participants. Applicants will be notified of admission status by email by March 31.

A complete application consists of the following four components:
(1) Curriculum Vita with name and contact information, current location and position. If you are a student, the CV should indicate your current status in graduate school (year in program, whether you've passed qualifying exams, whether you've defended a dissertation proposal).
(2) Description of your EITM research proposal (5-10 pages). We will base admission substantially on the quality and potential of this proposal -- particularly its integration of theoretical modeling and empirical testing. (3) Brief (1-2 page) statement of interest and purpose in applying for the summer program.
(4) Two letters of recommendation sent as email attachments to eitm@duke.edu.

Please ask your letter writers to place your name and "EITM" in the e-mail message's subject heading and to email the letters directly to us.

Please submit application materials as PDF or MS-WORD attachments via e-mail to eitm@duke.edu.

Applicants will be notified of admission status (by e-mail) by March 31, 2008.

Financial support: There are no fees or tuition.   Dormitory lodging, meals and domestic travel expenses will be provided.

Content of the 2007 EITM Summer Institute:

EITM Summer Institutes are organized into 4 week-long modules, each with a different substantive and methodological focus.  This year's fourth week will be split between a mini-module and participant presentations.  This year's EITM program and faculty (as so-far committed) are:

WEEK ONE (June 16-June 21):  Institutions and Institutional Analysis
Lead Lecturers:  John Aldrich (Duke) & Arthur Lupia (Michigan)

This unit explores Empirical Implications of Institutional Models. It traces the origins, successful development, and potentially problematic aspects of the New Institutionalism literature, combining lectures and innovative class activities to understand modern studies of the causes and consequences of institutional choices. Activities use examples of
bureaucratic performance, voter competence, Congressional organization, election laws, separation of powers, coalition bargaining, jury decision-making, political development, etc. The week also addresses (a) some constructive debates on the appropriateness to political contexts of the modern proliferation of equilibrium concepts and statistical-estimation
procedures, (b) how incomplete information affects institutional efficacy, and (c) innovative data-collection methods. Past work teaches critical lessons, but this week aims to improve the scientific and social value of new research, helping to shape the new new institutionalism.

WEEK TWO (June 23 - June 27):  Experimentation in the Social and
Behavioral Sciences  Lead Lecturer:  Wendy Wood (Duke) and a series of
Special Lecturers

This week will be composed of a series of presentations and projects about experimentation in the social sciences.  The week will begin with an overview of experimentation and research design and will then consider the use of experimentation in political science, social psychology, experimental economics, and political psychology.  We will take advantage of the resources at Duke, including training in the use of software commonly used for the design and implementation of experiments and the running of experiments in Duke's DIISP lab, exposure to psycho-physical lab techniques, and training in neuron-experimentation and the use of field experiments.

WEEK THREE (June 30 - July 4):  Complexity: Computational Models and Social
Networks  Lead Lecturers:  Scott de Marchi (Duke) & James Fowler (UCSD)

This week will provide a practical and hands-on introduction to using computational methods, focusing on how they relate to closed-form analytical models and empirical tests. As a way of grounding the key topics in computational modeling, the module will cover social network theory and the techniques used to analyze politically-relevant networks (with a substantive focus on problems such as Congressional cosponsorships and judicial citations). A key feature of this treatment will be to demonstrate how one connects the analysis of social networks with specific hypotheses and tests on observed data. Finally, the module will also provide one additional substantive unit based on the interests of guest faculty. In previous years, this has included computational models of elections,
international conflict, and bargaining.

WEEK FOUR (July 7 - July 11):  Participant Project Workshop and
Mini-Module, TBA