Interview with Semir DZEBO, PhD Candidate in International Relations

My name is Semir Dzebo and I am a second-year PhD Candidate in the Department of International Relations at Central European University. My research is focused on secession and understanding the individual attitudes and grievances of those who advocate and support secessionist movements in particular. Other than this, I am also interested in computational text analysis for the purpose of identifying and evaluating the presence of particular ideologies within a discourse. 

My motivations for joining this workshop stem from my research interests. I wanted to gain a better understanding of how I could leverage data obtained on social media platforms in order to advance our understanding of individual level determinants of secessionist support. 

My experience was overwhelmingly positive. Not only was the course well designed, but the instructor was always open to answer questions about the content. What I found to be the most appealing part of the course was the opportunity to ask questions related to the application of the course content to my own research. This allowed me to begin envisioning the application of what we were covering in the course to my own research questions.

Yes, I would strongly encourage others to check the CIVICA course catalog often and find a course that is of interest to them. These courses are a great way to expand our methodological approaches, learn new skills, and meet other researchers.