Comparative Historical Analysis
Full Day Short Course
9:00am – 5:00pm
Comparative historical analysis (CHA) is a methodological tradition that bridges the strengths of historical narrative and social scientific inquiry. Widely used to examine problem-driven, macro-historical questions, CHA allows researchers to use the past not only to generate rich descriptions and typologies, but also to develop generalizable, testable theories. This full-day short course introduces scholars to the core elements of CHA’s unique analytical toolbox, offering both theoretical grounding and practical applications.
The course is structured around four methodological components: exploration and description, data visualization, temporal thinking, and theorizing. Participants will learn how CHA emphasizes descriptive clarity to generate new research questions, uses visualization techniques like periodizations and chronologies to map historical processes, and employs a nuanced temporal vocabulary to explain both rapid changes and long-term developments. The course also explores how CHA fosters an iterative relationship between theory and data, helping researchers uncover hidden confounders and refine existing explanations.
Led by Marcus Kreuzer, Professor of Political Science at Villanova University and author of The Grammar of Time: A Toolkit for Comparative Historical Analysis (Cambridge, 2023), the course draws on his extensive teaching experience at IQMR, ECPR, and MethodsNet. Designed for scholars across subfields, this course will benefit anyone interested in using CHA to investigate complex political transformations across time.