The annual workshop on research methods for doctoral researchers and advanced postgraduate students – co-organised by the Greek Politics Specialist Group (PSA) and the Center for Political Research of Panteion University took place between the 22nd-24th April 2026, in Panteion University, Athens, Greece.
We opened with welcome remarks from Stella Ladi on behalf of the Centre for Political Research and Dimitra Panagiotatou on behalf of GPSG, before Dimitra led the first session on turning a research idea into a coherent project. We started with research questions, moved to research design, and then examined key design elements – cases, data, and methods -, stress-testing these frameworks against participants’ own work.
The afternoon brought a roundtable with Angelos Angelou, Georgios Giannakopoulos, Kira Gartzou-Katsouyanni and Vasiliki (Billy) Tsagkroni on the importance of thinking of how research using evidence from Greece helps us understand broader phenomena – from crisis politics to civil wars. In the end, drawing on the GPSG’s recent workshop in Glasgow [see key take-aways here: https://lnkd.in/d2B9ZTdC] and the research projects of the student participants, the discussion turned towards promising future research agendas using Greece as a case, from democratic resilience and backsliding to the politics of climate adaptation.
The second day began with Sofia Tipaldou leading a session of how to ask questions today. Sounds simple, but it is not: we delved into semi-structured interviewing, common biases, real-life (and slightly chaotic) examples, and a lot of honest conversation about the messiness of fieldwork.
Then Angelos Angelou tackled AI and academic writing, leading a discussion about analytical clarity, plagiarism risks in relation to third-party tools, and how to use AI tools in a way that is constructive, transparent, and ethical.
Iakovos Makropoulos closed the workshop, on Friday, with another deep dive into how Generative AI and Large Language Models can genuinely support social science research: organising large text collections, extracting information, coding material, validating data. The takeaway? AI is not a shortcut around research practice. It becomes valuable when used critically, transparently, and within a researcher-controlled workflow.
A huge thank you to all our presenters, discussants, and participants – including two researchers who joined us from abroad.
