PANELS AND ROUNDTABLES AT APSA 2020
Division Chair: Sara Niedzwiecki, University of California, Santa Cruz
Practitioner Reflections on Bayesian
Reasoning for Qualitative Research
Wednesday, September 9, 2:00pm MDT (Wednesday, September 9, 4:00pm EDT)
This roundtable panel invites prominent practitioners of qualitative
research from different subfields of the discipline to reflect on Fairfield
& Charman’s (2017, 2019, forthcoming) Bayesian approach to inference.
Andrew Bennett, Georgetown University (Chair)
Kenneth M. Roberts, Cornell University
Margaret M. Pearson, University of Maryland
Lauren M. MacLean, Indiana University, Bloomington
Saadia M. Pekkanen, University of Washington
Stephan Haggard, University of California, San Diego
Tasha A. Fairfield, London School of Economics
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Challenges in Qualitative Data
Collection and Analysis
Thu,
September 10, 8:00 to 9:30am MDT (10:00 to 11:30am EDT), TBA
This panel studies different challenges in the
process of qualitative data collection and analysis. These challenges span from
transparency and replication, to creating our own data and sexual harassment in
the field.
Chair:
Juan Diego Prieto Sanabria, Universidad de los Andes
Colin Elman,
Syracuse University, Diana Kapiszewski, Georgetown University, and Robert M Demgenski,
Syracuse University, “Verifying Qualitative Research.”
Jeffrey T. Checkel,
European University Institute, “Research Transparency and Open Science: Can We
Have Too Much of a Good Thing?”
Stacey Leigh Hunt,
Auburn University, ”Challenges to Field Research: Sexual Harassment and Assault.”
Tranae Hardy,
Georgetown University and Diana Kapiszewski, Georgetown University, “Trends
and Evolution in the Conduct of Political Science Research.”
Discussant:
Jennifer Marie Cyr, University of Arizona
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Shared Goals, Diverse Approaches:
Methodological Pluralism in Labor Studies
Thu, September 10, 12:00 to 1:30pm MDT (2:00 to 3:30pm EDT)
Chair: Ian M. Hartshorn, University of Nevada, Reno
Biko Koenig, Franklin & Marshall College, “Unions, Work, &
Labor from Ethnographic & Interpretive Perspectives.”
Ian M. Hartshorn, University of Nevada, Reno, “Archival
Research in Labor Politics: A New Golden Age?”
Katerina Manevska, Radboud University, Agnes Akkerman,
Bram Geurkink, Roderick Sluiter, Radboud University Nijmegen, and
Antonia Stanojevic, “Worker Voice to Political Voice: Quantitative
Evidence from the Netherlands.”
Discussant: Laura C. Bucci, Saint Joseph's University
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Poster Session: Qualitative and
Multi-Method Research
Thu, September 10, 12:30 to 1:00pm MDT (2:30 to
3:00pm EDT)
Stephanie Dornschneider,
University College Dublin and Johan A. Elkink, University College
Dublin,
“Fear
and Protest: Analyzing Emotions in Arabic Ethnographic Interviews.”
Ewan Alexander MacDonald,
Technological University Dublin, Brendan K. O'Rourke, Dublin
Institute of Technology, and John W. Hogan, Technological University
Dublin, “Imagining the Future in Budgets 1970-2015: A Mixed-methods Discourse
Analysis.”
Xiaoyuan LI (潇远 栗), Fudan University, Poverty Alleviation without Claiming:
Perspective on Cadre's Interaction in China.
Discussants:
Annette Iris Idler, University of Oxford/Harvard University and
Abhishek Chatterjee, University of Montana
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Rethinking Africa, Eurasia & the
West: Regions, States & Comparative Area Studies
Thu, September 10, 2:00 to 3:30pm MDT (4:00 to 5:30pm EDT)
Chair: Rudra Sil, University of Pennsylvania
Rudra Sil, University of Pennsylvania and Allison D. Evans,
University of Nevada, Reno, “How Issue-Specific, Cross-Regional Studies Serve
Single-Case Analysis.”
Matthias Basedau, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies,
“The Case for Comparative African Studies (CAfS)”
Fatih Umit Cetin, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Amel F. Ahmed,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, “A “Commensurability” Question? The USA
in Comparative Area Studies Perspective.”
Sebnem Gumuscu, Middlebury College, “Why Democracies Collapse:
Turkey, South Africa, and Comparative Area Studies.”
Discussant: Nora Fisher Onar, University of San Francisco
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Fieldwork in Political Science 1:
Ethnography's Home in the Field
Fri, September 11, 8:00 to 9:30am MDT (10:00 to 11:30am EDT)
Given the widespread applicability of ethnography across established
research programs in political science, this roundtable explores two
interrelated questions, 1. How can political ethnography encourage a more
reflexive, self-aware and therefore more insightful discipline? And 2. How do
political ethnographers situate themselves within their respective fields, both
methodologically and through fieldwork? Political ethnography has been defined
as being at once an immersive methodology while also cultivating a sensibility
(Schatz 2008). This roundtable brings together political ethnographers from
multiple stages in their careers to discuss issues around how to conduct research
using immersive, interpretive and embedded methodologies to understand
political processes and movements. We seek to ascertain and cultivate new
methodological insights into the growing repertoire of scholarship employing
diverse ethnographic methods, including participant observations, structured
and semi-structured interviews, collaborative ethnography, critical ethnography
and decolonial methodologies that come to bear on the political.
Nicholas Rush Smith, CUNY-City College (Chair)
Tani H Sebro, Humboldt State University
Osman Balkan, Swarthmore College
Nicole Sunday Grove
Sarah Marie Wiebe, University of Hawai'i, Manoa
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Fieldwork in Political Science 2.
Reflections on Ethnographic Methods.
Fri, September 11, 10:00 to 11:30am MDT (12:00 to 1:30pm EDT)
Chair: Günes Murat Tezcur, University of Central Florida
Aarie Glas, Northern Illinois University, “Power, Positionality,
and Positions of Power: Reflexivity in Elite Interviewing.”
Andres Besserer Rayas, The Graduate Center, City University
of New York, and Robert Courtney Smith, Marxe School of Public and
International Affairs, Baruch College, and Sociology, Grad Center, CUNY, “Political
Ethnography and the Erosion to Liberal Norms: An Agenda.”
Mariana Borges Martins da Silva, Oxford University, “Making
Concepts Meaningful: A Practice-Based Approach to Concept Formation.”
Emmanuelle Reungoat, Université de MONTPELLIER-CEPEL, François Buton,
National center for scientific research (CNRS France), and Cecile Jouhanneau,
University Paul Valery Montpellier, “A Renewal of Protest. Observing the Yellow
Vests through the Biographical Lens.”
Discussant: Lauren M. MacLean, Indiana University,
Bloomington
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Fieldwork in Political Science 3:
Tracing Trends and Forging the Future
Fri, September 11, 12:00 to 1:30pm MDT (2:00 to 3:30pm EDT)
Field research plays an important role in political science, with
scholars across subfields and epistemological approaches traveling to various
sites “to acquire data, information, or insights that significantly inform
one’s research” (Kapiszewski, MacLean, and Read 2015, 1). Over the last decade,
political scientists have been increasingly engaged in vital discussion about
the principles, practices, challenges, and benefits of engaging in fieldwork
(Hsueh, Jensenius, and Newsome 2014). This roundtable aims to energize and
expand that ongoing discussion. Each participant will also address aspects of
“democracy, difference and disruption” to link their fieldwork with this year’s
conference theme.
Deborah L. Wheeler, U.S. Naval Academy (Chair)
Susan L. Ostermann, University of Notre Dame
Justine Davis, University of California, Berkeley
Diana Kapiszewski, Georgetown University
Roselyn Hsueh, Temple University
Robin L. Turner, Butler University
Nicholas Rush Smith, CUNY-City College
Erica S. Simmons, University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Fieldwork in Political Science 4.
Stories from the Field.
Fri, September 11, 2:00 to 3:30pm MDT (4:00 to 5:30pm EDT)
When groups of political scientists get together, we often find
ourselves sharing stories about our research experiences – the stories we tell
our students, friends and colleagues, of the kind we perhaps wish someone had
shared with us before we embarked on field research for the first time. After
one such conversation, we found ourselves thinking: someone should really be
writing this stuff down. And so, we decided to do just that. The result is
Stories from the Field: A Guide to Navigating Field Research in Political
Science, a collection of stories, insights, and advice about field research
from 44 political scientists from a range of backgrounds and subfields, with a
wide range of geographic and theoretical expertise. The book will be published
with Columbia University Press in the summer of 2020. The purpose of this
roundtable is to further the conversation begun in this book.
Jesse Driscoll, University of California, San Diego
Ora B. Szekely, Clark University
Peter Krause, Boston College
Christina M. Greer, Fordham University
Ian S. Lustick, University of Pennsylvania
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Process Tracing. New Directions in
Qualitative Research
Sat, September 12, 8:00 to 9:30am MDT (10:00 to 11:30am EDT)
Chair: Megan Turnbull, University of Georgia
Jason Seawright, Northwestern University and
Kendra L. Koivu, University of New Mexico, “Can Statistics and
Experimental Designs Help Process Tracing?”
Tasha A. Fairfield, London School of Economics and
Andrew Charman, University of California, Berkeley, “Rethinking Van
Evera’s Tests in a Probabilistic Framework.”
Mathilde Cecchini, Aarhus University and Derek Beach,
University of Aarhus, “Bringing Back the Social: Interpretivism and Social
Process Tracing.”
Rosa Willemijn Runhardt, Leiden University, “Concrete
Counterfactual Tests for Process-tracing.”
Discussant: Jeffrey T. Checkel, European University Institute
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Mixing Experiments and Qualitative
Methods
Sat, September 12, 12:00 to 1:30pm MDT (2:00 to 3:30pm EDT)
Chair: Soo Yeon Kim, National University of Singapore
Abigail Fisher Williamson, Trinity College,
Sarah S. Willen, University of Connecticut and
Colleen C. Walsh, Cleveland State University, “From Interviews to
Survey Experiments: Innovating Flexible Coding Approaches.”
Andrew Charman, University of California, Berkeley and
Tasha A. Fairfield, London School of Economics, “How We Learn from
both Observational and Experimental Research.”
Daniel Encinas, Northwestern University, “Redesigning Experimental
Inquiry in Political Science: A Qualitative Approach.”
Derek Beach, University of Aarhus and Levente Littvay, Central
European University Foundation, “What Makes an Experiment Good - Using Process
Tracing to Improve Experiments.”
Discussant: Jason Seawright, Northwestern University