The Institute for Analytical Sociology (IAS) is unique in offering the first coherent postgraduate training in Analytical Sociology. The program aims to broaden and deepen the doctoral student's knowledge in the subject of analytical sociology and to make the doctoral student well prepared for independent work in the field.

IAS offers a unique doctoral training program in Analytical Sociology. Our graduate students receive both theoretical and methodological research training by working in close collaboration with some of the worlds’ leading scholars in Analytical Sociology. Graduate students are part of a collegial team of researchers who conduct cutting-edge research on important social, political, and cultural matters. We strongly emphasize the importance of students developing their research skills not only through course attendance and thesis work but also through scientific collaborations in research projects, as well as through seminar and conference presentations.

The aim of postgraduate training is for the doctoral student to acquire the ability to independently and critically design and implement a qualified research project and to present and disseminate research results and knowledge nationally and internationally, within and outside academia. During postgraduate training, the doctoral student combines courses in theory and method with independent dissertation work. In total, a doctoral degree consists of 240 hp. This is equivalent to four years of study including three years of dissertation work. Throughout the PhD program the doctoral student is employed with a centrally regulated wage ladder.

General Study Plan

Former PhD students talk about IAS...

Recent Doctoral Thesis 

2025

Elis Carlberg Larsson (2025) Contagious Secularization: Social Influence and Membership Dynamics in Religious Organizations
Hendrik Erz (2025) On the Record: Understanding a Century of Congressional Lawmaking through Speech and Vote Behavior
Anastasia Menshikova (2025) Cultural change: Studying social interdependencies in public discourse with computational text analysis
Maël Lecoursonnais (2025) Places of Influence: The Lasting Imprint of Where We Grow Up
Cheng Lin (2025) Navigating Stronger Evidence: Unobservable Processes and Causal Mechanisms in Social Trajectories

2024

Miriam Hurtado Bodell (2024) Mining for Meaning: using computational text analysis for social inquiry
Laura Fürsich (2024) The Urban Tapestry: Essays on the Relationship Between Social Networks and Residential Segregation
Rodrigo Martínez Peña (2024) Complex causality: Bridging analytical sociology and social-ecological systems research

2023

Emanuel Wittberg (2023) Corruption risks in a mature democracy: Mechanisms of social advantage and danger zones for corruption
Erik Liss (2023) The Taller the Ladder, the Tougher the Climb?: Essays on the Impact of Income Inequality on Intergenerational Mobility

2022

Martin Arvidsson (2022) Beyond Generative Sufficiency: On Interactions, Heterogeneity & Middle-Range Dynamics

2021

Selcan Mutgan (2021) Free to Choose?: Studies of Opportunity Constraints and the Dynamics of School Segregation
José Luis Estévez (2021) Antecedents & Consequences of Gossip: A Social Network Approach
Alex Giménez de La Prada (2021) Local Social Exposure and Inter-Neighborhood Mobility

Work at LiU

Organisation

Doctoral studies at LiU