Attendees chose from more than a dozen module sequences led by leading scholars in the social sciences. This year’s topics ranged from ethnographic methods and comparative historical analysis to geographic information systems, research ethics and approaches that blend qualitative insight with machine learning. Additionally, the institute offered sessions where participants put their own research designs on the table and heard frank feedback from peers and faculty.

“IQMR alumni form a global community,” says fellow organizer Christiane Pagé, associate director of CQMI. “They maintain friendships and collaborations decades after the institute and are represented on the faculty of many of the leading political science departments in the world. And whenever they return to Maxwell be it for an invited talk, as IQMR instructor or as Maxwell faculty member, it’s a little bit like a homecoming.” 

Eleven current Maxwell faculty members are institute alumni, including Seth Jolly, chair of the Political Science Department. He says IQMR was a pivotal experience during his graduate studies. “I met amazing instructors from all over, whose work I had read in classes,” he says. “The peer networking was just as important. Intellectually, it was transformative for my dissertation project and my future research and, socially, it expanded my peer network immensely.”

For many, the institute has shaped how they think about research—not just the methods they use, but the questions they ask.

The institute’s influence extends well beyond the two weeks on campus. Doctoral students who met at IQMR have gone on to become long-term research collaborators, most recently contributing to Doing Research as a Native: A Guide for Fieldwork in Illiberal and Repressive States (Oxford University Press), a volume addressing one of the most urgent challenges in contemporary field research, edited by Kira Jumet of Hamilton College and Merouan Mekouar of Canada’s York University; they met at IQMR in 2011.

“Sixteen straight years of researchers from major institutions choosing to come train at Maxwell says something about where this school stands,” says Shana Gadarian, associate dean for research and professor of political science. “IQMR gives them the training to do rigorous work on pressing questions about political institutions, democracy and public policy.”

Gadarian and Maxwell faculty colleague Brian Taylor gave remarks at this year’s institute.

One of the highlights of this year’s lineup was an evening event that had participants gather with faculty over mocktails for informal, one-on-one conversations about their thorniest methodological questions. These informal exchanges between faculty and participants leave some of the most lasting memories.

“I came in hoping to learn more about qualitative methods, but I left with much more than that: many wonderful friends, meaningful feedback on my research, and so much inspiration to do better research,” says Kaniz Fatema, graduate student in sociology at the University of Kansas. 

Top photo: From left, Jae Chang and Erik Ackroyd of The Ohio State University, Isabella Marin of Columbia University, Mariam Ben Slama of Johns Hopkins University, and Girma Milo Alemu of Ardhi University.