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This course is designed to help students develop
their research design skills in qualitative methods.
The objective is to enable graduate students to create
and critique sophisticated qualitative research designs in
political science. In order to do so, the seminar explores
the techniques, strengths, and limitations of
qualitative methods by scrutinizing the logic and
application of comparative-historical research, case-
study, process-tracing, and textual analysis. The
course further takes on epistemological issues in the
social sciences such as causality, theory testing,
case selection, inference, and the philosophy of social
science. Even though qualitative research can
stand on its own, this course stresses the advantages
of not viewing the qualitative methods in isolation
from other methods. Accordingly, the course encourages
the use and application of mixed-method
research in political science. It also aims to expose
students to ethical considerations in research
and publishing.
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