Workshop: Emerging Methodologists in Qualitative and Multi-Method Research

This project lays the groundwork for an ongoing annual conference in methodology for qualitative and multi-method research. A collaborative effort led by a diverse team of political scientists that aims to expand the community of scholars who develop and publish on methods for generating and analyzing qualitative research data, and for combining such techniques with their quantitative counterparts. The project promotes the progress of science by encouraging and empowering researchers from under-represented groups to bring their perspectives to methodological debates and to develop their methodological ideas. The work of these qualitative researchers will enlarge the set of available tools for creating and working with qualitative data, will strengthen the discipline's methodological foundations, and will encourage advancements of the qualitative field. More broadly, the diversification of the community of methods faculty can have important downstream effects as those faculty serve as role models, inspiring the students who work with them to become the next generations of methodological innovators. This award funds three inaugural Emerging Methodologists Workshop for Qualitative and Multi-Method Explanatory Research (EMW-QMER) will be held in Fall 2023, 2024, and 2025. At each workshop, six advanced graduate students and junior faculty from under-represented groups will present and receive feedback on a paper they have written on methods for collecting, generating, or analyzing qualitative data, and/or strategies for integrating qualitative and quantitative methods. The workshops will be attended by political scientists interested in developing, publishing on, and teaching qualitative and multi-method research. Project personnel and a broad team of senior scholars recruited to serve as mentors for each presenter will offer intensive support, introducing presenters into networks and working to build an inclusive community. The initiative will bring new voices, perspectives, and ideas to the development of methods for generating and analyzing qualitative data, and for integrating qualitative and quantitative techniques. As more scholars from under-represented groups innovate methodologically and publish their work, their contributions will broaden, diversify, and thus enrich the research community focused on developing such approaches. Ultimately a multiplier effect is anticipated through which undergraduate and graduate students from under-represented groups are increasingly motivated to develop their own ideas about research methods because they see faculty to whom they can closely relate writing on, teaching, and leading organizations dedicated to such methods. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.