The Center for Global Democracy's flagship workshop series brings together survey experts from around the world to exchange ideas on cutting-edge methodology in international survey research — free, virtual, and open to all.
About WISM
CGD is a hub of excellence in international survey research at Vanderbilt University, dedicated to producing high-quality public opinion data, developing cutting-edge methods, building research capacity, and generating policy-relevant research. Our flagship Workshop on International Survey Methods (WISM) is part of that mission — a series that brings together faculty, students, and researchers to exchange ideas on survey methodology.
Each session features a survey expert delivering a 30-minute presentation, followed by 30 minutes of Q&A. The series is intentionally trans-institutional, drawing scholarship from multiple disciplines, and fully virtual, so researchers anywhere in the world can take part.
How to Join
All talks are held via Zoom. Sign up for the mailing list to receive session invitations and stay up to date on the schedule.
Fall 2026 Workshops
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Wednesday, September 16
11 am CT
James Martherus - Senior Research Scientist, Morning Consult
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Wednesday, October 21
11 am CT
Luis Schiumerini - Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame
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Wednesday, November 18
11 am CT
Amanda Lea Robinson - Professor of Political Science, Ohio State University
Past Workshops
Date: 2/25/26 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Interoperability Challenges in European Research Data Infrastructures
Presenter: Alexia Katsanidou (Scientific Director at GESIS, and Professor at the University of Cologne)
Date: 3/25/26 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Comparing Survey Modes in Sweden: Postal Push-to-Web versus Dual-Frame RDD
Presenter: Patrick Moynihan (Associate Director of International Research Methods at Pew Research Center)
Date: 4/15/26 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Autocratization Spillover: Can Autocratization Events Abroad Change Citizens' Democratic Attitudes?
Presenter: Ka Ming Chan (Assistant Professor at Newcastle University)
Date: 9/17/25 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: A self-completion survey now. The retirement of face-to-face data collection in the European Social Survey (ESS)
Presenter: Rory Fitzgerald (City St. George's, University of London; Director of the European Social Survey)
Date: 10/8/25 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Does Training Activists in Nonviolent Action Work? Evidence from a Meta Analysis of Field Experiments in Sudan, Tunisia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua
Presenter: Consuelo Amat (Johns Hopkins University)
Date: 11/5/25 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Representativeness across four remote survey modes in nine Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Presenter: Shana Warren (Innovations for Poverty Action)
Date: 2/5/25 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: The Impact of Showcard Use on Selected Point-Rating Scales in Face-to-Face Surveys: Evidence from the European Social Survey
Presenters: Melike Saraç (Hacettepe University) and Brady West (University of Michigan)
Date: 3/12/25 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Resilient Survey Research and Data Collection in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Samer Said (Research Director and TPM Lead, AWRAD), Tala Barham (Researcher, AWRAD)
Presenters: Samer Said (AWRAD), Tala Barham (AWRAD)
Date: 4/23/25 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: An Application of Gridded Population Sampling in Lebanon
Presenter: Raphael Nishimura (University of Michigan)
Date: 10/16/2024 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Are 16-Year-Olds Mature Enough to Vote? Evidence from the Voto Joven in Latin America
Presenters: Ines Levin (UC-Irvine)
Date: 11/20/24 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: The ESS Framework to Prevent, Monitor, and Assess the Potential for Undesirable Interviewer Behavior: Challenges and Lessons Learned
Presenter: Joost Kappelhof (Netherlands institute for Social Research/SCP)
Date: 1/31/2024 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: The Geography of Racially Polarized Voting: Calibrating Surveys at the District Level
Presenters: Shiro Kuriwaki (Yale)
Date: 2/28/2024 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Improving Representation of Harder-to-Reach Groups in CATI Surveys: Evidence from Seven Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Presenters: Charles Lau (GeoPoll)
Date: 3/20/2024 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Evaluating a Two-stage Qualitative Research Approach to Improve Locally Relevant Food Security and Resilience Measures: Lessons Learned from Uganda and Kenya
Presenters: Caroline Deschak, Julie de Jong, Monica Kothari, Lwendo Moonzwe (ICF International)
Date: 4/24/2024 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Exploring the nuances of democratic ideals: Insights from a semantic clustering analysis in Chile
Presenters: Ricardo Gonzalez and Sergio Chaigneau (University Adolfo Ibanez, Chile)
Date: 10/18/2023 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: The Evolution of Mobile-phone Surveys in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Study of Coverage Structure
Presenters: Mahmoud Elkasabi (RTI International)
Date: 11/8/2023 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: From Stories to Models: Eliciting Culturally Determined Knowledge from Hyperlocal Populations using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps
Presenters: Clifford Zinnes (NORC at the University of Chicago), Santadarshan Sadhu (NORC), Peter Revay (Two Six Technologies), Rebecca Myhre (Two Six), James Gentile (Two Six)
Date: 1/18/2023 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Asking about Violence: Evidence and Transparency in research ethics
Presenters: Lauren Young (UC - Davis) and Hannah Baron (Brown).
Date: 2/15/2023 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Natural Language Processing Methods for Open-ended Survey Responses: The case of the 'most important national problem'
Presenters: Sarah Staveteig Ford, US Department of State
Date: 3/22/2023 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Mode effects: a within-subject exploration
Presenters: Carmen Le Foulon, CEP Chile
Date: 4/19/2023 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: An Exploration of Digital Trace Data Quality
Presenters: Alexandru Cernat, University of Manchester
Date: 9/21/2022 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Sabbath Surveys and Political Attitude in Israel
Presenters: Dr. Hannah Ridge, University of Chicago
Date: 10/19/2022 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Multinomial Probit Estimation for Electoral Research
Presenters: Dr. Chris Achen (Princeton) and Dr. Won-ho Park (Seoul National)
Date: 11/16/2022 at 11:00 AM CT
Title: Sensitivity Analysis for Survey Weights
Presenters: Erin Hartman and Melody Huang, UC - Berkeley
Date: 2/9/2022 at 10:00 AM CT
Title: Living Standards Measurement Study: an Overview and Future Priorities in Survey Methods
Presenters: Dr. Gero Carletto, World Bank
Date: 3/2/2022 at 10:00 AM CT
Title: Mode Effects on Sensitive Questions: Evidence from Arab Barometer Surveys
Presenters: Dr. Michael Robbins, Arab Barometer, Princeton University
Date: 3/30/2022 at 10:00 AM CT
Title: Policy analysis during COVID-19: creative approaches to collecting data in sub-Saharan Africa during the pandemic
Presenters: Dr. Sarah Hughes, Mathematica Policy Research
Date: 4/20/2022 at 10:00 AM CT
Title: The Impact of Response Styles on Subjective Socioeconomic Status in Cross-national Research
Presenters: Julie de Jong, University of Michigan
Date: 10/6/2021 at 10:00 AM CT
Title: Survey Research Comparing the Results of Experiments Across Countries: Surprising Evidence about International Differences and about the Reliability of Scientific Evidence
Presenter: Dr. Jon Krosnick, Stanford University
Date: 11/10/2021 at 10:00 AM CT
Title: Dialing into phone: Polling opportunities and challenges during the pandemic
Presenter: Patrick Moynihan, Pew Research
Date: 12/15/2021 at 10:00 AM CT
Title: Survey and Data Science: Lessons Learned from World‘s Largest Survey on COVID-19
Presenters: Dr. Frauke Kreuter, University of Maryland, Ludwig-Maximilians-University (Munich)