Spring into Methods

The workshop explores the ‘turn to affect’ in qualitative research.  Affective research methods can be described as methods which move us; and which have a sensitivity to the embodied and emotional capacities of the researcher and those they study.  Here boundaries between research and researcher are imploded, as they entangle in simultaneous becoming.

• Introduce participants to the role of affect in qualitative methods.
• Explore how the notion of affect connects to the more-than-human, and an ethic of care in research.
• Develop confidence in researchers and provide possibilities for action when it comes to doing methods differently.

As part of the workshop, participants will engage in practical exercises to explore different aspects of affective research methods in the context of their own study. Through these exercises participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their own researcher becoming.  There will be lots of time for reflection, discussion and sharing experience.

These ‘advanced’ online-taught oral history workshops will provide Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences doctoral students with an opportunity to focus in more depth on some of the key theoretical issues in oral interviewing, how to undertake successful interviews remotely (phone and online) and develop their interviewing practice through discussion of specific problem issues and scenarios. The 2022 workshops are designed for those PG students using oral interviewing techniques who have already accrued some practice in interviewing. They should also have ideally undertaken prior oral history OR interviewing practical training. Latter is not compulsory though.

Intended learning outcomes include providing students with deeper knowledge of remote interviewing methodologies in an era of social distancing and of oral history theory and a more critical awareness of the theoretical challenges that oral historians navigate in their research. Also an appreciation of the legal and ethical obligations surrounding oral historical research and issues around managing trauma in interviewing. We also discuss oral narrative methods and different approaches for analysing and disseminating interviews and related data. There will be opportunities to discuss students own research plans and interviewing projects, problems and issues arising with seasoned oral history experts, early career researchers and each other. 

Please note: This workshop is designed for those PG students using oral interviewing techniques who have already accrued some practice in interviewing. Participant should also have ideally undertaken prior oral history or interviewing practical training, however this is not a requirement.

Session 1: Tuesday 19 April 2022, 10am – 1pm (online)
Oral History Theory: Memory, Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity

Session 2: Wednesday 20 April, 10am – 1pm (online)
Ethical issues and trauma in oral interviewing

Session 3: Thursday 21 April, 10am – 1pm (online)
Remote Interviewing Practice in an Online World

Session 4: Friday 22 April, 10am – 1pm (online)
Narrative analysis and use of oral testimony in thesis research and publication

Number of places available: 20

Setting the Scene:

You are a postgraduate student, and you have some data for your thesis. Maybe you started to read about ‘Data Analysis’ but are realising data are messy, complex and sticky. Maybe you even started your ‘analysis’ but dug down into a rabbit hole that has left you dazed and confused. Or, you have done some ‘writing up’ and need feedback on your analysis! If any of these scenarios sound familiar, this ‘mini-course’ may be for you.

What:

The purpose of this ‘mini-course’ is to work with doctoral students on analysing their qualitative data. We provide readings, tasks, feedback and guidance on how to analyse data and write up your results.

Who:

We’ll bring together 20 postgraduate students and their qualitative data for exciting collaboration. We are two faculty members at the University of Strathclyde. We have expertise in qualitative analysis, lots of enthusiasm for research design, and we want to share this joy with you!

How:

The mini-course meets on two Fridays and one Saturday – with morning and afternoon sessions (2.5 hours each). We’ll teach about, engage with and conduct qualitative data analysis. We’ll use course readings, in-class activities, homework tasks and provide guiding feedback.

Why:

We know the doctoral process can be lonely. We also know there are few opportunities to learn how to conduct qualitative data analysis. We aim to develop an interdisciplinary culture that works to do qualitative analysis, using a collaborative approach with guidance from peers and mentors.

Please note: All participants must be doctoral students who have collected data from their thesis. 

Session 1: Friday 06 May, 10am-4pm (in person)

Curiosity and Expanding Inquiries

• Modes of thinking analytically about data
• How to move beyond data in order to focus with data

Organising Data and ‘Glows’ in Data

• Preparing the data in order to think critically
• Reading data as the first form of analysing data

Session 2: Saturday 14 May, 10am-4pm (in person)

(De)Coding and (De)Categorizing Data  

• The techniques of ‘tagging’ data to make sense of what’s happening
• How to (un)tag data in order to move forward with your arguments

Diagramming and Unpacking Glows

• Mapping and making connections between data, literature and theory
• Unpacking the meaning behind connections to develop stories

Session 3: Friday 20 May, 10am-4pm (in person)

Writing and (non)representation

• How to write up data ethically to (re-)present our findings
• Ways in which we make our work public

Reflexivity

• Making our work significant whilst remaining humble

Number of places available: 20

What makes research feminist? And how is feminist research done? What is the relevance of feminist research to knowledge production in the arts & humanities and the social sciences? Doing Feminist Research addresses these and other foundational epistemological and methodological questions that cut across research in the arts & humanities and the social sciences.

The workshop tackles dilemmas related to issues of power, positionality, intersectionality, ethics and ‘lived experience’ in doing research. If you are interested in learning how to use research methods as feminists, this workshop is for you!

You will learn from an interdisciplinary team of feminist researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde. You will be exposed to feminist research projects within academia as well as collaborations between academic and activist contexts. You will have the opportunity to explore different modes of presenting/articulating feminist research, including through creative practice.

The workshop has received repeatedly good feedback. Here’s what one of the workshop participants noted: “Attending the Feminist Research Methods workshops during the first year of my PhD has been transformative for my PhD and has fundamentally shaped how I approached my research design.”

Indeed, if you are looking for an immersive experience in feminist research practice, come and attend Doing Feminist Research, organised jointly once again by genderED – the University of Edinburgh’s gender and sexualities hub and Strathclyde University’s Feminist Research Network.

Session 1: Wednesday 04 May, 1pm-5.15pm (in person)

Session 2: Thursday 05 May, 9.30am-7.30pm (in person)

Session 3: Friday 06 May, 9.30am-5.30pm (online)

Number of places available: 25

This workshop aims to introduce discourse analysis as a method in social sciences and humanities. In this interactive workshop, students will familiarise themselves with the history and context of various approaches to discourse analysis, such as conversation analysis, CDA, feminist discourse analysis and multimodal analysis, and they will be encouraged to think about how DA is used in their own disciplines and projects. At the end of the workshop, student groups will design a project using DA, and they will have a chance to discuss it with a panel of DA experts.

The workshop aims to support interdisciplinary orientation to research and offers a confident starting point for those who wish to employ a form of discourse analysis in their research. Following the focus on online learning during the pandemic, this workshop also prioritises face-to-face engagement,  with an aim to build and strengthen cohort development through networking across institutions and/or disciplines.

The training will be delivered by a multidisciplinary team of QMU researchers as well as external DA specialists.

Session 1: Friday 06 May, timing TBC (online)

Session 2: Monday 09 May, timing TBC (in person)

Session 3: Tuesday 10 May, timing TBC (in person)

Number of places available: 25

Participatory approaches involve non-researchers contributing to, collaborating on and/or co-creating research and these methods can offer unique opportunities and insights when researching interdisciplinary topics.

The aim of this workshop is to provide students with an interdisciplinary perspective of participatory methods available for collecting data across the humanities and the social, biological and environmental sciences.

 Our objectives are to:

• Provide students with an interdisciplinary theoretical foundation on the data collection methods that can used in this area
• Provide students with real-world examples of collecting data using a participatory approach
• Provide students with hands-on experience of using a range of data collection methods applicable to this area
• Facilitate discussion between students and experts on the data collection methods and working with interdisciplinary data/topics

You will be taught and supported in your learning by three members of Faculty and five PhD students from the interdisciplinary Environmental Sustainability and Human Health (Sustainability and Society) Research Group and the Extremes in Science and Society research programme at the University of Stirling. All contributors have expertise in collecting data using a range of methods relevant to students working at the interfaces of the humanities and the social, biological, and environmental sciences. We will also encourage discussion on participants’ experiences using (or desire to use) these methods.

The workshop will be run face-to-face over two consecutive (full) days at the University of Stirling, primarily using new meeting spaces designed for researchers in the Institute for Advanced Studies in our new Campus Central facility. Additional activities will take place on the grounds of our stunning campus. Pre-workshop lecture material will be shared with participants in advance of the course so that participants have a baseline of knowledge before the workshop starts. This will allow us more time to focus real-world experiences of collecting data and more time for questions and discussion, as well as practical and interactive sessions.

The focus of the workshop will be on data collection methods, rather than analysis methods (any support materials for analysis will be made available online). The workshop will focus on three themes that will cut across the teaching:

1. Theories and background knowledge needed for using participatory methods.
2. Practical examples of collecting data using a participatory approach, including walking interviews and photovoice, exposure monitoring (e.g., air pollution) and workshop-based techniques like World Café.
3. Lessons learned. Perspectives from PhD students and faculty about their experiences using participatory methods in interdisciplinary research will be delivered, including open discussions and Q&As with workshop participants about their concerns, experiences, and future plans.

Session 1: Thursday 19 May, full day – timings TBC (in person)

Session 2: Friday 20 May, full day – timings TBC (in person)

Number of places available: 25

This hands-on two-day workshop will introduce you to online experiments using JavaScript and the popular, free and open-source jsPsych library, giving you the skills to build experiments that run in a web browser and the knowledge and confidence to explore further for yourself.

We’ll provide you with a rapid tour of online experimental methods in the language sciences, covering a range of paradigms, from survey-like responses through to more standard psycholinguistic methods such button presses and mouse clicks, and finally more ambitious and challenging techniques such as voice recording and iterated learning. Although all the examples we cover on the course have a language focus, there will be minimal theoretical content and we will explain the general relevance of the questions and applicability of the techniques so participants from other disciplines can follow what’s going on.

A series of instructive examples will be presented via short lectures, followed by extended practical sessions where you can work with code with on-hand individual support.

We’ll also look at the main platforms for reaching paid participants, such as MTurk and Prolific, and discuss some of the challenges around data quality and the ethics of running on those platforms.

The course will be presented by Professor Kenny Smith from the Centre for Language Evolution at the University of Edinburgh, and Alisdair Tullo, a professional computer programmer at the University. We’ll be assisted by two PhD candidate tutors who are experienced in helping students learn to program. No prior programming experience is required, although basic computer skills (and a willingness to have a go!) are assumed.

Session 1: Tuesday 10 May, full day – timings TBC (in person)

Session 2: Wednesday 11 May, full day – timings TBC (in person)

Number of places available: 25

Vast swathes of our social interactions, personal behaviours and commercial transactions are now conducted online and/or captured digitally. These digital phenomena are often aggregated into large, rich and unstructured data sets, many of which are only accessible if you possess the right computational skills to access and manage data from websites and online databases (Kitchin, 2014).

This training series, run over 2.5 days, introduces participants to core concepts, and computational and creative methods for working with digital data. The training consists of a mix of lectures, data demonstrations, practical exercises, and group discussions.

The training is suitable for empirical researchers who are interested in learning foundational skills for collecting and marshalling digital data. No prior knowledge of computational methods, programming or online databases is required.

No specialist software is required, participants only need access to a web browser.

Ethics, trust and privacy are important considerations in this domain and participants will be briefed in best practice.

Session 1: Monday 16 May, timings TBC (online)

Session 2: Tuesday 17 May, timings TBC (online)

Session 3: Wednesday 18 May, timings TBC (online)

Number of places available: 50

Does your project contain a questionnaire or survey? Are you developing this yourself? This 2-day interactive workshop can help you to build confidence and add academic integrity to this aspect of your study.

Survey methods are commonly used in the social sciences, arts, and humanities, either as the primary form of data collection, or as part of multi-methods studies. The reliability and validity of the use of survey questions depends critically on the steps employed for the selection or development of survey questions. This workshop provides introductory training on survey methodology, focussing on how to select or develop survey questions, and the importance of selecting appropriate response formats to support high quality data analysis methods.

The organisers and presenters have practical expertise in designing, using, and analysing survey methods across a range of disciplines, including education, medicine, nursing, political sciences and psychology.

During the workshop, you will:

• Gain an understanding of how and why survey questions are written, including evaluation of issues such as comprehension and literacy, as well as participatory and inclusive methods for question development across disciplines
• Be introduced to the various response formats, including closed-ended and open-ended questions, and learn how to select the most appropriate format for your research
• Learn some useful ‘rules of thumb’ of question development
• Be introduced to methods to adapt survey questions to multimedia formats for more inclusive survey administration
• Receive an introduction to survey analysis methods
• Be given the opportunity to analyse some examples of existing survey questions
• Be given the opportunity to develop/ share some of your own survey questions, and receive real-time feedback from the workshop developers and your peers

This event is intended for PGR students who are interested in using or designing survey methodology as part of a research project. Students should be comfortable performing basic computer functions, but no previous experience of using survey methods is necessary. The organisers will provide pre-session materials that students can use a primer, prior to attending the workshop.

After the workshop you will be part of an interdisciplinary academic network of peers across Scotland who are interested in using survey methods. This network will provide you with the opportunity for future collaboration and sharing of ideas for peer-support.

Session 1: Tuesday 03 May, full day – timings TBC (online)

Session 2: Thursday 05 May, full day – timings TBC (online)

Number of places available: 25

Thinking Through Race, Anti-Racism and Decolonial Methods aims to develop critical thinking on issues of race, anti-racism and/or decoloniality. The aim is to deepen our engagement with race and decoloniality across, through and beyond disciplines. These workshops will facilitate discussion to enable critical reflections on terminology, theoretical approaches, contemporary and historical debates, and everyday life.

The framing questions to this series of workshops include: How do we research race, anti-racism and decolonisation? How should research methods challenge, complicate and/or celebrate existing ways of thinking about race, anti-racism and decolonisation? What does it mean to be a POC researcher in academia? Delivered in a variety of dynamic and engaging formats that will be relevant across the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and beyond, the workshops will take an innovative and interdisciplinary approach to address these questions by thinking collectively, collaboratively and supportively about research methods on race, anti-racism and decolonisation.

We aim to deepen understandings of interdisciplinary research methodologies and to sharpen theoretical knowledge, skills and practice around the areas of race, anti-racism and decolonisation. We will give space to develop and discuss critical race methodologies through a number of key themes:

• an introductory session on collaborations and methods
• arts-based and creative methods
• popular culture & science fiction as critical tools
• impact and knowledge exchange
• practical methods in decolonising praxis

There will be numerous opportunities to discuss your own research, projects, impact-related activities, methods and finding a place in academia in individual sessions with a wide range of interdisciplinary and international scholars, activists and artists.

We aim to co-create a supportive, safe space for solidarity, networking and building future collaborations and communities of care.

Please note: within the programme of Thinking through Race, Anti-Racism and Decolonial Methods, there is a workshop aimed specifically at people of colour (POC) researchers. Please bear in mind when deciding whether to attend this workshop that it involves sharing lived experiences of being a POC researcher in HE in a safe and supportive environment amongst fellow POC researchers.

Session 1: Thursday 19 May, afternoon (online)

Session 2: Friday 20 May, afternoon (online)

Number of places available: 30