Sophia Hunger

Sophia Hunger

Assistant Professor at University of Bremen

Teaching & training

I am passionate about teaching the social sciences in a research-oriented, student-centered way. My goal is to empower students to independently evaluate and produce social science theories, methods, and empirical findings — so alongside conveying substantive knowledge, I see myself as much as a mentor and sparring partner as a lecturer. I combine traditional lectures with critical discussion, project-based learning, and hands-on lab sessions, place a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary co-teaching, and enjoy mentoring students and early career researchers at every stage, from Bachelor’s to doctoral level. I also work to keep my teaching accessible and inclusive, and I help students engage critically and responsibly with digital tools such as AI and large language models.

Graduate

  • Seminar: Specialization: Quantitative Methods in Political Science, University of Bremen (recurring, winter 2023/24–2026/27)
  • Seminar: Introduction to Quantitative Methods in Political Science, University of Bremen (2x per term, recurring, winter 2024/25–2026/27)
  • Seminar: Quantitative Methods in Political Science, University of Bremen (winter 2023/24)
  • Research seminar (MA Sociology): Dynamics of Protest Politics (4 hrs, weekly, one semester, co-taught with Swen Hutter, Teresa Völker, and Daniel Saldivia Gonzatti), Free University of Berlin, winter 2022

Undergraduate

  • Lecture: Statistics II, University of Bremen (winter 2026/27, winter 2024/25; lab course winter 2023/24)
  • Lecture: Methods I, University of Bremen (summer 2024)
  • Seminar: ‘Text-as-Data’ approaches in the social sciences: an introduction to quantitative text analysis with R, University of Bremen (summer 2024)
  • Seminar: The empirical study of the radical right, University of Bremen (summer 2023)
  • Seminar: The study of radical right-wing and populist parties in Western Europe, University of Düsseldorf (32 hours, spring 2019)

Postgraduate

  • Weekly Doctoral Colloquium, Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS) (2024, 2025)
  • Workshop: Text-as-data, Summer School for Women in Political Methodology (co-taught with Theresa Gessler), 2023
  • Computational Social Sciences, DataTrain, University of Bremen (2023)
  • Instructor, Methods Workshop for members of the Junge Akademie: Text-as-data-approaches and automated text analysis (1.5 days, spring 2021)
  • Teaching Assistant, Ph.D. Seminar: Introduction to quantitative text analysis, EUI (2019)
  • Ph.D. Seminar: Text as data. An introduction into quantitative text analysis with R Quanteda, EUI (2 day workshop, with Theresa Gessler, spring 2018)

Thesis & doctoral supervision

  • Doctoral supervision: 7 ongoing PhD projects (since 2023), University of Bremen
  • Jury member for 5 completed dissertations (2024–2026)
  • Master’s thesis supervision: 12 completed, 3 ongoing (University of Potsdam, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bremen)
  • Bachelor’s thesis supervision: 15 completed, 5 ongoing, University of Bremen

Training

  • Workshop, “The Multiple Roles of a Supervisor”, part of the series “Impulses for Doctoral Supervision”, by Dr. Desiree Dickerson, BYRD, perspektive promotion, Personalentwicklung und Graduiertenakademie der Universität Oldenburg
  • Workshop: Exams and proof of performance in a world with generative AI tools like ChatGPT}, University of Bremen
  • Certificate: Teaching in higher education, EUI (fall 2018)