杏吧论坛

Dr. Aliya Hamid Rao, Assistant Professor, Department of Methodology. 

This course is available on the Global MSc in Management, MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe, MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe (杏吧论坛 & Sciences Po), MSc in Gender, MSc in Gender (Research), MSc in Gender, Policy and Inequalities, MSc in Human Rights and Politics, MSc in Inequalities and Social Science, MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies, MSc in Media, Communication and Development, MSc in Political Sociology and MSc in Social Research Methods. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course focuses on the practical dimensions of interviews as a data collection method for social science research. In so doing, the course also engages with epistemological concerns, such as what kinds of claims interview data can be used to make. While this course does not require any pre-requisites, it takes a deep and narrow approach in its focus on semi-structured interviews. This course will consider sampling, recruitment, and ethical concerns that arise particular to interviews. Such considerations will be discussed throughout the course through readings, lectures, and seminars. Students seeking an introductory overview of qualitative methods are advised to see MY421/521. This course is designed to be most useful to those with some familiarity with qualitative methods broadly, and for those who come to the course with some sense of an interview study they want to conduct.

This course will provide students with the skills to:

• Understand and implement the key principles for planning, designing, and executing an interview based study;
• Understand and implement the key principles in how to conduct interviews that yield rich data;
• Understand the key elements in interview data;
• Evaluate published research that draws on interview data.

Students will start off by learning what kinds of research questions can suitably be answered by the data usually collected through interviews. They will learn about the considerations that go into designing a largely interview-based study (including: recruitment, sample parameters, and interview guides). While the focus will generally be on the practical dimensions, students will also learn about some of the epistemological debates pertaining to thes