Selected Syllabi

 
 

QUAL 8405
Philosophy of Social Science

Spring 2024

An examination of the history and philosophy of social science research methods, including historical and current debates about the ontology, epistemology, methodology, and aims of the social sciences.

In this course we wondered - how do we map the philosophy of social science without reproducing dominant narratives of what-counts-as-science? We grapple with questions such as:

  • What is a fact?

  • How do we decide what counts as a fact?

  • What is philosophy?  What does philosophy do?

  • What is the relationship between philosophy and fact?

  • What is the relationship between politics, science, and philosophy?

  • What is the relationship between data and facts? What role does experience play in fact?

  • How do we pay attention to and account for change?

  • How do we trouble philosophy and science?

QUAL 8035
Visual Inquiry

Summer 2021; Spring 2023

What is an image? Where are images found? How are images made? What do images tell us about how we know and who we are in the world? These are just some of the questions that this course takes up in an exploration of visual methods in qualitative inquiry. Visual inquiries create space for researchers to think outside of written language (or normative research practices) and to inquire and make meaning through embodied artistic practices. This course considers both the historical and current landscape of visual approaches to research and their place in/against the field of qualitative research. Students read theoretical and methodological texts that span the breadth of visual research practices. In addition, students in this course explore a range of visually oriented methods and approaches including collage, found objects/images, map-making, new media, photography, sculpture, and sound. Students develop and present a qualitative project that applies visual methods of data generation or data representation. 

Research Products:

Nomadic Visual Inquiries: Explorations in Visual Methodologies Across Disciplines and Paradigms: AERA 2022 Structured Poster Session featuring 11 students from the Summer 2021 course and their methodological work developed as part of the class.

Collaging Awakening and Resistance with/in Artful Inquiry paper under review with students from Spring 2023 course for special issue on Artful Inquiry, also presented as a conference paper at ICQI 2024.

QUAL 8510
Theories in Qualitative Design

Spring 2022; Fall 2024

This seminar-style course explores various theories and philosophies used in qualitative inquiry. Students will engage with a series of primary texts that take up different ontological and epistemological positions and develop an understanding of the relationship of theorizing to the research process. Throughout the semester, students in the course will think, create, and write with different philosophers and theoretical concepts, culminating in a final project that connects theory and design.

Research Products:

Dear theory and other stories: Dis/uncovering our relationship to theory through reading: paper under review with students from Spring 2022 course for special issue on Artful Inquiry, also presented as a conference paper at ICQI 2023.

Dear theory and other stories: Recognizing, refusing, (re)membering, and (re)imagining theory with Black Feminisms: Invited lecture for the Social Justice Methodologies Virtual Speaker Series. University of Alabama.