ANTHR 4409 - [Qualitative Methods in the Social Sciences]

Fall. Next offered: 2020-2021. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Co-meets with ANTHR 7409.

S. Villenas.

This course is an introduction to the practice and conceptual foundations of qualitative research methods in the social sciences. Students will learn different approaches with the opportunity to experience the practical dimensions of conducting a qualitative study, including research design, participant observation, interviewing, discourse analysis, and narrative inquiry. In the process, we will explore the principles, theories and epistemologies informing various paradigms in qualitative research. What does it mean to do interpretive research? What do feminist and critical ethnographies look like? What are critical race methodologies? What does it mean to think with performativity, power, deconstruction, desire or decoloniality? We will also examine dilemmas and issues concerning ethics, informed consent, researcher positionality and relationships, and writing and reporting.