Methodological Seminars - 2025
We are excited to announce a series of methodological seminars for 2025!
The seminar series features engaging sessions spread across the academic year, each exploring a different research method with guidance from expert speakers.
Participants will receive reading materials beforehand and can look forward to interactive discussions and informative presentations on various aspects of each method, from its practical application to its challenges and inspirations.
How to Participate
RSVP: Please confirm your attendance via Google Form (https://forms.gle/wDNAdKQYwq2dNJTu8)
Platform: Seminars will be held on Zoom
Information: Detailed information and links will be sent one week before each event
We look forward to your participation in our engaging and informative seminars!
UPCOMING SEMINARS
Seminar 3: The Practical Governance Method: Responding to the “Lived Experience Movement” in Housing Policy and Practice
- Date: February 20, 2025
- Time: 16:00-18:00 (London)
- Speaker: Dr. Renée McBeth (University of Alberta, Canada)
Policymakers and practitioners understand they should include people with lived experience in policy, planning, and service delivery, but often fail to do so in practice. This workshop introduces the practical governance method developed as part of local efforts to build equitable housing governance in Victoria, BC, Canada. The three-part method was used to build shared purpose among the group, to facilitate discussions that draw meaning from lived experience, and to practice making decisions together. Practical, political, and epistemic challenges underscore the contribution of the method as a participatory planning and governance strategy.
Dr. McBeth brings 15+ years of experience in university-community research partnerships, specializing in housing policy, co-creation methods, and practical governance for support services.
Seminar 4: Integrating Feminist Perspectives in Research: A Methodological Dialogue
- Date: March 5, 2025
- Time: 13:00-14:30 (London)
Speakers:
- Paula Otero-Hermida, Spanish National Research Council
- Violeta Colman, World Bank
- Ann-Kathrin Rothermel, University of Bern
- Valentina Nerino, University of Bern
This seminar will feature an interactive dialogue exploring how we integrate feminist perspectives and methodologies into our research. Through facilitated discussion, participants will explore the foundational elements of feminist research - examining how gender dynamics, women's rights advocacy, and feminist political frameworks shape their methodological choices.
The discussion will address critical questions at the intersection of feminist theory and research practice:
- How does a feminist lens influence methodological choices?
- What unique considerations arise when centering gender in research?
- How do scholars balance academic rigor with feminist advocacy?
As this seminar takes place just a few days before International Women's Day (March 8), we hope this discussion will contribute to the ongoing global conversation about gender equity and the importance of feminist perspectives in all fields of research.
Seminar 5: Women/Gender and Politics Research versus Feminist Research
- Date: March 26, 2025
- Time: 18:00-19:30 (London)
- Speaker: Dr. Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat
This seminar session addresses how women and gender issues are incorporated into the discipline of political science and a subfield of women/gender and politics emerged within the discipline. In addition to noting the role of women’s movement and feminist scholarship in pushing the boundaries of “politics” and challenging the established methodological frameworks, the seminar attends to the difference between “women and politics research” and “feminist research.” It also touches upon the complexities posed by the intersectionality approach.
About the speaker: Dr. Arat specializes in human rights (particularly women's rights), democratization, globalization, and development, combining theoretical and empirical research. Her publications include numerous articles and books such as "Democracy and Human Rights in Developing Countries" (1991) and "The Uses and Misuses of Human Rights" (2014). Her current research focuses on human rights in Turkey, women's rights and neoliberalism, and the politics of human rights. At UConn, she contributes to the Human Rights and Women's, Gender and Sexualities Studies programs. She has held leadership positions in professional organizations, serves on editorial boards of several journals, and edits the "Power and Human Rights" book series. Her achievements include the APSA Award of Distinguished Scholar in Human Rights (2010) and SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence (2006). She is also active in human rights advocacy as a founding member of Turkey's Women's Platform for Equality.
Seminar 6: Mastering the Art of Interviews: Techniques for Effective Research
- Date: April 10, 2025
- Time: 15:00-16:30 (London), 11:00-12:30 (Brasilia)
- Speaker: Dr. Debora Thome
About the speaker: With 15 years of experience in journalism and a PhD in Political Science, Debora Thome has conducted hundreds of interviews, some of which have been turned into academic articles and books. She has extensive experience with elite interviews and field research. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher at FGV Cepesp (Brazil).
Seminar 7: An Introduction to Complex Systems for Social Scientists
- Date: April 24, 2025
- Time: 18:00-19:30
- Speaker: Dr. Alasdair Stanton
What is a complex system — and why should social scientists care? This seminar offers a practical introduction to complexity, suitable for researchers across the social sciences. Using examples from the speakers' recent PhD research with key theoretical concepts of complexity, the session provides a guide to recognising, analysing, and working with complex systems in the social sciences.
We will explore core questions:
– What defines a complex system?
– How to recognise a complex system?
– What techniques are available to study complexity?
– Why do common interpretive and statistical methods often fail with complex datasets?
About the speaker: Dr. Alasdair Stanton researches complex systems in political science, particularly Chinese domestic bureaucracy and the Party-State system. He graduated from University of Glasgow (MA, PhD) and University of Edinburgh (MSc), and worked in East Asia for a decade before returning to academia. He currently teaches at University of Wolverhampton.
