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Teaching Resources

Please find syllabi about fieldwork in post-conflict and fragile situations. We will add new pieces on a rolling basis. If you are interested in contributing a syllabus or have any requests or suggestions, please email us at statesandsecurity@gc.cuny.edu.

Syllabus: Qualitative Field Research

In this seminar, students discuss and practice qualitative field research methods. The course will cover the basic techniques for collecting, interpreting, and analyzing ethnographic data, with an emphasis on the core ethnographic techniques of participant observation and in-depth interviewing. Course reading will draw on works in sociology and anthropology as well as political science. Throughout the course we will discuss the politics and ethics of field research.

application/pdf iconwood field_research_syllabus_jan_18_2008.pdf
Syllabus: Civil War Research Methods

This course is about the application of qualitative methods to the study of civil war. It begins with an overview of the cutting edge in qualitative methods, intentionally casting its epistemological net broadly. We thus assess methods inspired by positivism (case studies, process tracing) and those more interpretative in nature (discourse analysis, ethnography, textual analysis) - the goal being to provide students with a robust set of tools for explaining and understanding the dynamics of civil war. The course also reviews the promise (and pitfalls) of methodological pluralism or so-called mixed methods.

application/pdf iconPRIO syllabus civil war research methods.pdf