Methodological Considerations for Studying Diverse Identities

Session Submission Type: Virtual Roundtable

Session Description

The study of race, ethnicity, gender raises epistemology questions and methodological considerations. Race, ethnicity, and gender are often studied at the individual level as identities. However, they are also institutions that shape the larger contextual environment. Moreover, race, ethnicity, and gender do not exist in isolation requiring our methods to account for their intersection. Careful consideration of our methodical choices' impact is critical to ensuring that the knowledge produced by social science research is both equitable and inclusive.

The empirical study of political science seeks to develop knowledge through observation and identifying systematic patterns in data. As a discipline, political science has long embraced the myth that our modes of inquiry are value-neutral and unbiased. However, our understanding of politics is fundamentally shaped by how those observations are made and how those systematic patterns are identified. For example, our understanding of voting behavior in the United States has a white male bias due to the survey research used to develop our theories. Some of the earliest studies had a limited number of women respondents because women were assumed not to be politically active. If active, women were allowed to follow their husband's political direction. Moreover, standard sampling techniques meant that the number of racial and ethnic minorities was so limited it was impossible to identify systematic patterns in their behavior. Analysis of heterogeneity within gender, racial, and ethnic groups was next to impossible. How we observed political behavior fundamentally influenced what we know about politics.

This round table will discuss the unique challenges associated with researching race, ethnicity, and gender in order to develop a more inclusive understanding of politics. We will address how embracing the study of race, ethnicity, and gender should not be done in isolation. We contend that political science needs to develop methods to study politics that understand race, ethnicity, and gender relationally and contextually.

Sub Unit

• Theme Panel

Chair

• Heather L Ondercin Appalachian State University

Presenters

• Daniel Q. Gillion University of Pennsylvania

• Amber Mackey University of Pennsylvania

• Melina Much UC Irvine

• Heather L Ondercin Appalachian State University

• Lorrie Frasure UCLA

• Janelle Wong