Research Design and Methods in International Relations:
Qualitative Methods
Winter 2023
Instructor
Erzsebet Strausz, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations Central European University
Email: strausze@ceu.edu Office hours: by appointment.
Teaching assistant Vladimir Ogula Ph.D. Candidate
Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations Central European University
Email: ogula_vladimir@phd.ceu.edu Office hours: by appointment
Teaching time Tuesdays 10:50-12:30
Course description
This Research Design and Methods course offers a detailed and substantive overview of a range of qualitative methods that are frequently used in interpretivist, ethnographic and critical research projects. These include discourse analysis, cultural analysis, relational interviewing, focus groups, ethnographic research and other relevant modalities of inquiry.
The course builds upon four key planes of engagement:
1) Focused readings of exemplary work with critical and interpretivist inclinations. You are encouraged to read all assigned or recommended journal articles not only as substantive statements on a specific subject matter but also methodologically, as instances of a documented research process.
2) A variety of in-class exercises will help you develop and hone your own interpretative skills.
3) Personal reflection related to your own research experience and plans will assist you in translating different modes of inquiry into actual, everyday practice suitable for your research interests and needs. Please keep a reflexive journal throughout the class (preferably a physical one) and bring it to each session, including the first class.
4) Workshops and/or guest lectures (to be confirmed) will create further opportunities to learn more about the lived experience of undertaking qualitative research and the ways in which obstacles, limitations and complex fieldwork situations may be negotiated.
Assessment
Research note: maximum 1000 words (excluding bibliography) related to one or more of the methods discussed (discourse analysis, visual analysis, interviewing, ethnography/participant observation, focus groups), 30%
Research proposal: maximum 1500 words (excluding bibliography) related to the dissertation topic or an alternative subject matter 40%
Project presentation: 20%
Engaged participation: 10%
* Further details on each assignment will be provided during the first class. If you are submitting a dissertation in the current academic year, research proposals/projects will be related to your dissertation topic. *
PART I. THE SECRET LIFE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE CONCEPTS Week 1. The ethos of interpretation and the anatomy of an MA dissertation Reading:
Benjamin, Walter (2006) ‘The Storyteller’ in om Hale, Dorothy J, Ed. The Novel: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory 1900-2000. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing. 361- 378.
Schaffer, Frederic Charles (2016) Elucidating social science concepts: an interpretivist guide. New York, NY: Routledge.
Chapter 1: Why do concepts need elucidating? pp1-25 (available as e-book via the CEU library)
Recommended readings:
Schaffer (2016) Chapter 2: Grounding pp25-50 and Chapter 3: Locating pp56-73
Week 2. Analysis as exposure: power relationships at work Reading:
Schaffer, Frederic Charles (2016) Elucidating social science concepts: an interpretivist guide. New York, NY: Routledge.
Chapter 4: Exposing pp 74-88
(available as e-book via the CEU library)
Foucault, Michel History of Sexuality Vol 1. Chapter 4: ‘Method’ pp92-103.
Recommended readings:
Schaffer (2016) Chapter 2: Grounding pp25-50 and Chapter 3: Locating pp56-73
PART II. STUDYING ARTEFACTS Week 3. Revisiting discourse analysis
Reading:
Ghertner, D. Asher (2008) ‘Analysis of New Legal Discourse behind Delhi's Slum Demolitions’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 43, No. 20 pp. 57-66
Chris Methmann, “Visualizing Climate-Refugees: Race, Vulnerability, and Resilience in Global Liberal Politics”, International Political Sociology, Volume 8, Issue 4, December 2014, Pages 416–435.
Recommended reading:
Hall, Stuart, ‘Foucault: Power, Knowledge and Discourse’ in Margaret Wetherell, Stephanie Taylor, Simeon J Yates (eds.), Discourse Theory and Practice: A Reader, SAGE, 2001. 72- 81.
Milliken, Jennifer. (1999). The Study of Discourse in International Relations: A Critique of Research and Methods. European Journal of International Relations, 5(2), 225–25
Week 4. Revisiting visual and cultural analysis Reading:
Hansen, Lene (2011) “Theorizing the image for Security Studies: Visual securitization and the Muhammad Cartoon Crisis,” European Journal of International Relations 17:1, pp 51-74.
Please choose one more text from the list below:
Heath-Kelly, Charlotte (2018) “Survivor Trees and memorial groves: Vegetal commemoration of victims of terrorism in Europe and the United States,” Political Geography, Volume 64, 63- 72.
Ilan Zvi Baron, Galia Press-Barnathan, “Foodways and Foodwashing: Israeli Cookbooks and the Politics of Culinary Zionism”, International Political Sociology, Volume 15, Issue 3, September 2021, Pages 338–358
Georg Löfflmann (2013) “Hollywood, the Pentagon, and the cinematic production of national security”, Critical Studies on Security, 1:3, 280-294,
Trevor McCrisken & Christopher Moran (2018) “James Bond, Ian Fleming and intelligence:
breaking down the boundary between the ‘real’ and the ‘imagined’”, Intelligence and National Security, 33:6, 804-821.
Matt Davies, “You Can't Charge Innocent People for Saving Their Lives!” Work in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, International Political Sociology, Volume 4, Issue 2, June 2010, Pages 178–
195
Rens van Munster, Casper Sylvest, Documenting International Relations: Documentary Film and the Creative Arrangement of Perceptibility, International Studies Perspectives, Volume 16, Issue 3, August 2015, Pages 229–245
Hansen, Lene. “How images make world politics: International icons and the case of Abu Ghraib.” Review of International Studies 2015, 41: 263-288.
Bleiker, Roland, David Campbell, Emma Hutchinson, and Xzarina Nicholson. “The visual dehumanisation of refugees.” Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 48, No. 4 (2013):
398-416.
Weldes, Jutta (1999) ‘Going cultural: star trek, state action, and Popular culture’, Millennium:
Journal of international studies, 28(1): 117-13
PART III. STUDYING RELATIONS Week 5. Interviewing
Reading:
Fujii, Lee Ann. Interviewing in Social Science Research: A Relational Approach. Routledge, 2017, Chapters 3, 4, 5. + interview excerpts
Recommended:
Fujii, Lee Ann. Interviewing in Social Science Research: A Relational Approach. Routledge, 2017, Chapter 1
Berner-Rodoreda, A et al. (2020) “From Doxastic to Epistemic: A Typology and Critique of Qualitative Interview Styles” Qualitative Inquiry, Vol 26, Issue 3-4, 291-305.
Mikecz, Robert “Interviewing Elites: Addressing Methodological Issues,” Qualitative Inquiry, Volume: 18, (6): 482-493.
Jones-Gailani, Nadia. "Qahwa and kleiche: drinking coffee in oral history interviews with Iraqi women in diaspora." Global Food History 3, no. 1 (2017): 84-100.
How to create consent forms and information sheets?
CEU guidelines, further considerations and examples
Week 6. Focus Groups Reading: TBC
Week 7. Ethnography Required readings:
Deepak Nair (2021) “Hanging Out” while Studying “Up”: Doing Ethnographic Fieldwork in International Relations", International Studies Review, Volume 23, Issue 4, December 2021, Pages 1300–1327
Wanda Vrasti (2008) "The Strange Case of Ethnography and International Relations", Millennium, 37:2, pp. 279–301
Please choose one more text from the list below:
Ethnography on social media
John Postill and Sarah Pink (2012) "Social Media Ethnography: The Digital Researcher in a Messy Web", Media International Australia, 145:1, pp 123-134.
Di Wang and Sida Liu (2021) "Doing Ethnography on Social Media: A Methodological Reflection on the Study of Online Groups in China" Qualitative Inquiry, Vol. 27(8-9) 977 987
Decolonizing methodologies
Tambinathan, V. and Kinsella, E. A. (2021) “Decolonizing Methodologies in Qualitative Research: Creating Spaces for Transformative Praxis”, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 20:1
Gallien, C., & (2020) .ك ,نايلاج. A Decolonial Turn in the Humanities - ﺽ ﱢﻮﻘملا فطعنملا تايناسنلإا يف رامعتسلال. Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, 40, 28–58.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26924865
Further resources
E-IR resource page on ethnography
PART IV. PRACTICES OF MEANING MAKING AND THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF RESEARCH
Week 8. Guest lecture/workshop TBC
Week 9. Guest lecture/workshop TBC
PART V. PROJECT PRESENTATIONS Week 10. Project presentations
No required readings.
Week 11. Project presentations No required readings.
Week 12. Project presentations No required readings.
