BackHome
Refresh: Off
Session Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Methods Café 2021

Fri, October 1, 10:00 to 11:30am PDT (10:00 to 11:30am PDT), TBA

Session Submission Type: Virtual Café

Session Description

The 2021 APSA theme, “Promoting Pluralism,” encourages political scientists to embrace
methodological pluralism in their study of political, economic, and social upheavals and
significant transformations that are occurring across the globe. Given the emphasis of
methodological diversity, our proposed Methods Café brings together a group of scholars
experienced in a variety of interpretive research methods, ranging from interviews to participant
observation. At the café, these scholars are available to anyone who wishes to discuss the area of
study or method they specialize in.
The café is not a panel or roundtable session where presenters prepare formal presentations on
their topics and speak in sequence. Instead, it is an informal setting—“a café” with multiple
tables and places to sit—that allows for one-on-one and group discussions, networking and
support. Here, cafe "visitors" will find several round tables set up in the café meeting room; each
table has a placard which displays the method being discussed at that table (e.g., “Interviewing”)
and one or two “specialists” in that research method sitting at that table. The café will also
include tables with book publishers, journal editors, and representatives from funding agencies
who are familiar with these methods. Topics and the names of the specialists are listed in the
conference program, and one or more hosts positioned at the room’s entrance helps people figure
out who is sitting where and further explain the process.
“Visitors” to the café are invited to arrive at any point in the time block allotted, visit any table
they like, and stay as long as they like. A visitor might approach a table, sit down, and ask the
specialist to talk about how s/he uses the method on offer at that table. If a conversation is
already under way, others can join in or just sit and listen. One need not worry about having
questions that are “too elementary”—it is fine to ask anything about that method, at any
level!—and visitors may leave the table or room at any time. Altogether, we encourage visitors
to circulate among as many tables as they wish, and we ask only they sign in at each table they
visit—our way of evaluating the demand for each topic. This year we are excited to add new
tables such as Indigenous Interpretive Methods and Intersectional approaches to gender and
sexuality.
Visitors at past cafés have ranged from doctoral students to full professors. The range of
questions is equally broad and might include:
• “What is x method?” or
• “I’m in the midst of analyzing my data and I’ve run into [describes a specific problem], how
should I handle it?” or
• “One of my committee members doesn’t believe that interpretive methods are valid. How can I
respond to this challenge?”
First initiated by Dvora Yanow and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea in 2005, the Methods Cafe has
been a successful and well-attended part of APSA for 15 years.
Robin Turner - Chair, Butler University, rlturne1@butler.edu
Biko Koenig - Chair, Franklin & Marshall College, bkoenig@fandm.edu

Sub Unit

Chairs

Presenters