SOC 476: Interviewing and Qualitative Methods

Transcription

1 Spring 2021 Syllabus SOC 476: Interviewing and Qualitative Methods Dr. Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz Office hours: Wednesdays, 4:30-5:30pm or by appointment COURSE DESCRIPTION Interviewing has long been a staple method for sociologists and social scientists. Despite this, every generation of scholarship seems to produce equally longstanding critiques about the value and validity of interview data. Based on the epistemic position that no method can provide unmediated, universal, or comprehensive knowledge about social world, this course explores the promise and practice of qualitative interviewing. The course is designed to help researchers develop qualitative interview projects and to reflect on research ethics, theory, and representation, more generally. COURSE SCHEDULE *Please do readings in the order they appear. Week 1: What are Interviews and What are They Good For? (March 30 and 31) Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln Introduction: The Discipline and Practice of Qualitative Research. Pp in Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry, edited by Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. [Focus on 1-14, 18-27] Reed, Isaac A Knowledge. Pp in Interpretation and Social Knowledge: On the Use of Theory in the Human Sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Read sections 1 & 2 only] Pugh, Allison J What Good Are Interviews for Thinking About Culture? Demystifying Interpretive Analysis. American Journal of Cultural Sociology 1(1): Gerson and Damaske, Chapter 1. Week 2: Research Problems, Questions, and the Scholarly Common Sense (April 5 and 7) Gerson and Damaske, Chapter 2. Alford, Robert R Designing a Research Project. Pp in The Craft of Inquiry: Theories, Methods, Evidence. New York: Oxford University Press.

2 Becker, Howard S Images. Pp in Tricks of the Trade: How to Think About Your Research While You re Doing It. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Skim, if necessary] Smith, Linda Tuhiwai Research Through Imperial Eyes. Pp in Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Zed Books Ltd., Read: Introduction and Literature Review Bell, Joyce M., and Douglas Hartmann Diversity in Everyday Discourse: The Cultural Ambiguities and Consequences of Happy Talk. American Sociological Review 72(6): Warikoo, Natasha Addressing Emotional Health While Protecting Status: Asian American and White Parents in Suburban America. American Journal of Sociology 126(3): Moss, Dana M Voice after Exit: Explaining Diaspora Mobilization for the Arab Spring. Social Forces 98(4): Sweet, Paige L The Paradox of Legibility: Domestic Violence and Institutional Survivorhood. Social Problems 66(3): Jacobs, Janet Sites of Terror and the Role of Memory in Shaping Identity Among First Generation Descendants of the Holocaust. Qualitative sociology 37(1): Week 3: Research Ethics: IRB and Beyond (April 12-14) Northwestern IRB Template for Social and Behavioral Research (HRP-583) Blee, Kathleen M., and Ashley Currier. Ethics beyond the IRB: An Introductory Essay Qualitative Sociology 34: [Read only pp ] Wood, Elisabeth Jean. The Ethical Challenges of Field Research in Conflict Zones. Qualitative Sociology 29(3): Coddington, Kate. Voice Under Scrutiny: Feminist Methods, Anticolonial Responses, and New Methodological Tools. The Professional Geographer 69(2): Public Debate on Floating City. Week 4: Casing and Samples (April 19 and 21) Gerson and Damaske, Chapter 3. Small, Mario Luis How many cases do I need? On Science and the Logic of Case Selection in Field-Based Research. Ethnography 10(1):5-38. Tavory, Iddo and Stefan Timmermans Introduction Toward Abductive Analysis and The Alternatives. Pp. 1-8 and 9-19 in Abductive Analysis: Theorizing Qualitative Research. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. Rodriguez-Muñiz, Michael Intellectual Inheritances: Cultural Diagnostics and the State of Poverty Knowledge. American Journal of Cultural Sociology 3(1): Read: Research Methods/Design Section Bell and Hartmann, Diversity in Everyday Discourse. Warikoo, Addressing Emotional Health While Protecting Status. Moss, Voice after Exit: Explaining Diaspora Mobilization for the Arab Spring.

3 Sweet, The Paradox of Legibility. Jacobs, Sites of Terror and the Role of Memory in Shaping Identity Among First Generation Descendants of the Holocaust. Week 5: Interview Instrument, Access, and Recruitment (April 26 and 28) Gerson and Damaske, Chapter 4 and Appendix C. Morning, Ann Learning Race: Students on Human Difference and Appendix D. Student Questionaire. Pp and Pp in The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and Teach About Human Difference. Berkeley: University of California Press. Kristensen, Guro Korsnes, and Malin Noem Ravn The Voices Heard and the Voices Silenced: Recruitment Processes in Qualitative Interview Studies. Qualitative Research 15(6): Li, Lantian How to Tackle Variations in Elite Interviews: Access, Strategies, And Power Dynamics. Qualitative Research [Online First] Week 6: Book Exemplar 1 (May 3 and 5) Hanson, Rebecca, and Patricia Richards Harassed: Gender, Bodies, and Ethnographic Research. Berkeley: University of California Press. Week 7: Conducting Interviews (May 10 and 12) Gerson and Damaske, Chapter 5. Weiss, Robert S Interviewing. Pp in Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies. New York: The Free Press. Fujii, Lee Ann Building Working Relationships. Pp in Interviewing in Social Science Research: A Relational Approach. New York: Routledge. Young Alford A, Jr Experiences in Ethnographic Interviewing About Race: The Inside and Outside of It. Pp in Researching Race and Racism, edited by Martin Bulmer and John Solomos. New York: Routledge. Herzog, Hanna On Home Turf: Interview Location and Its Social Meaning. Qualitative Sociology 28(1): Week 8: Book Exemplar 2 (May 17 and 19) Brown, Karida L Gone Home: Race and Roots through Appalachia. Chapel Hill: UNC Press Books. Week 9: Analysis and the Role of Concepts and Theory (May 24 and 26) May 24 Gerson and Damaske, Chapter 6. Ryan, Gery W. and H. Russell Bernard Techniques to identify themes. Field Methods 15(1): Tavory, Iddo Interviews and Inference: Making Sense of Interview Data in Qualitative Research. Qualitative Sociology 43:

4 Reed, Isaac A Knowledge. Pp in Interpretation and Social Knowledge: On the Use of Theory in the Human Sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. May 26 Read: Analysis Sections Bell and Hartmann, Diversity in Everyday Discourse. Warikoo, Addressing Emotional Health While Protecting Status. Moss, Voice after Exit: Explaining Diaspora Mobilization for the Arab Spring. Sweet, The Paradox of Legibility. Jacobs, Sites of Terror and the Role of Memory in Shaping Identity Among First Generation Descendants of the Holocaust. Week 10: Writing and Representation (May 31 and June 2) May 31 Gerson and Damaske, Chapter 7. Currier, Ashley. Representing Gender and Sexual Dissidence in Southern Africa. Qualitative Sociology. 34(3): Becker, Howard S Whose Side Are We On? Social Problems 14(3): June 2 Read: Discussion and Conclusions Bell and Hartmann, Diversity in Everyday Discourse. Warikoo, Addressing Emotional Health While Protecting Status. Moss, Voice after Exit: Explaining Diaspora Mobilization for the Arab Spring. Sweet, The Paradox of Legibility. Jacobs, Sites of Terror and the Role of Memory in Shaping Identity Among First Generation Descendants of the Holocaust. Peer Feedback on Final Memo REQUIRED BOOKS Brown, Karida L Gone Home: Race and Roots through Appalachia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Gerson, Kathleen, and Sarah Damaske The Science and Art of Interviewing. New York: Oxford University Press. Hanson, Rebecca, and Patricia Richards Harassed: Gender, Bodies, and Ethnographic Research. Berkeley: University of California Press.

5 GRADED ITEMS What Do You Want to Talk About? Posts In advance of most of our Monday discussions, post on canvas whatever specific aspects or themes from the readings you would like to discuss or debate. Also include any areas you would like clarification. These posts will guide Monday s conversation. Due: Every Monday, except weeks 6 and 8, no later than 12pm (CST). Memos We will dedicate several Wednesdays to workshop various aspects of qualitative/interview based research. To facilitate this process, you are to post the following memos: you are to post the following: Research Problem and Literature (Due: April 6, by noon) Ethical Considerations (Due: April 13, by noon) Research Design (Due: April 20, by noon) Interview Schedule (Due: April 27, by noon) Coding Memo (Due: June 1, by noon) These memos should be brief rather than burdensome. Try to keep them within about 1 page (single spaced). We will discuss the specifics of each of them in class. Practice Interview Conduct, transcribe, and code one interview. This assignment will feed into the coding memo (see above). IRB or Research Proposal At the end of the term, you will submit via a proposal (10 page double-spaced, Times New Roman). By week 3, please inform me whether your plan to submit an IRB application or research proposal. If you are not planning on conducting summer research or unsure about using interview methods in your research, you are expected to develop an imaginary qualitative project, associated with your research interests. If you are planning to conduct research over the summer, you should submit your IRB proposal to IRB no later than Week 6 or 7. Research conducted with 2YP in mind should be in consultation with your first and second readers. Due: Monday, June 7. OTHER ISSUES Recording: Unauthorized student recording of classroom or other academic activities (including advising sessions or office hours) is prohibited. Unauthorized recording is unethical and may also be a violation of University policy and state law. Students requesting the use of assistive technology as an accommodation should contact AccessibleNU. Unauthorized use of classroom recordings including distributing or posting them is also prohibited. Under the University s Copyright Policy, faculty own the copyright to instructional materials including those resources

6 created specifically for the purposes of instruction, such as syllabi, lectures and lecture notes, and presentations. Students cannot copy, reproduce, display or distribute these materials. Students who engage in unauthorized recording, unauthorized use of a recording or unauthorized distribution of instructional materials will be referred to the appropriate University office for follow-up. Intellectual honesty: This course follows Northwestern s code of academic conduct. As required, any incidents of plagiarism or academic misconduct will be immediately reported. Visit: Accommodations: I urge any students with disabilities or in need of accommodations to connect with Accessible NU. For more information visit: I also ask that students inform me as early as possible about their needs. In addition, students can find useful resources for safety and security, academic support, and mental and physical health and well-being at the NUhelp website and app. *Syllabus subject to change. Students will be alerted to any changes in advance.