Past Events
Find video and resources from past events below.
Find video and resources from past events below.
💥 Interpretive Policy Analysis conference update 💥
The call for papers is now open for the IPA-EUR 2027 in Budapest!
This panel stands at the intersection of political theory, interpretive methods, and attempts to remake the world. Drawing on empirical insights from the Americas, all four papers explore the relationship between how we understand the world and how we try to change it.
Recent edited volumes (e.g. Yanow and Schwartz-Shea 2012, Cyr and Goodman 2024) have made the fundamentals of interpretivism accessible to a wider audience. Where does the methods conversation go next? The papers on this panel suggest productive new directions.
The roundtable brings together ten scholars from varied ranks, subfields, and institutions to explore trends, challenges, and the future of interpretive methodologies and methods training in political science today.
The Interpretive Methodologies & Methods group is delighted to host our 20th annual Methods Café, an opportunity for social scientists at all career levels to learn more about interpretive methods. First initiated by Dvora Yanow and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea in 2005, the Café has been a successful and well-attended part of APSA for twenty years.
Join us for a pre-APSA short course featuring workshops and a panel for scholars working with art, pop culture and other cultural texts and practices.
The deadline for submitting proposals to the panels of the 14th Interpretive Policy Analysis Conference (IPA2026BR) has been extended until 29 June 2026! IPA2026BR will take place from 9–11 November 2026 in Brasília, Brazil.
Interpretivists do Interpretive Methods Series
John Boswell (University of Southampton) will discuss the use of meta-ethnography in his forthcoming book, How Citizens Encounter the Democratic State (Oxford University Press, 2026).
The talk is open to the public, but registration is required. Please register by clicking here.
The Spotlight Scholars program highlights outstanding early-career scholars whose work showcases or advances interpretive approaches to the study of politics. On May 1st, our 2025-2026 Spotlight Scholars, Mazie Bernard (Purdue University), Winston Berg (Harvard University), and Tadek Markiewicz (SWPS University in Warsaw) will present their work before we open it up for a Q&A from the audience.
This event is open to the public, but please register by clicking here.
A worldwide thirtieth anniversary celebration of Dvora Yanow ’s How Does a Policy Mean? (Georgetown UP, 1996).
Interpretivists do Interpretive Methods Series
Anastasia Shesterinina (The University of York) will discuss the ins and outs of life history interviewing in her work with ordinary people who participated in different ways in the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992-1993, former mid-level commanders of the FARC-EP in Colombia, and the broader Civil War Paths project she leads.
The talk is free and open to the public, but please register here.
Interpretivists do Interpretive Methods Series
Rich Nielsen (MIT) will discuss the ways in which he has sought to cultivate an ethnographic sensibility in his own work and the possibilities of combining interpretivism and positivism, drawing on a recent article published in International Studies Review titled “Religious Fieldwork for International Relations Scholars".
The talk is free and open to the public, but please register here.
Interpretivists do Interpretive Methods Series
Samantha Majic (John Jay College and the CUNY Graduate Center) will discuss her trials and tribulations doing research on the internet, as well as her ongoing work on fitness influencers.
The talk is open to the public, but registration is required. Please register by clicking here.
Interpretivists do Interpretive Methods Series
Sophie Harman (Queen Mary University of London) will discuss how she turned her research into an award-winning short film called Pili, telling the stories behind her research on global health.
The talk is open to the public, but registration is required. Please register by clicking here.
Interpretivists do Interpretive Methods Series
Marnie Howlett (Oxford) will discuss online interviewing, based on her own experience and fieldwork. Her publications on methods include “Looking at the ‘Field’ Through a Zoom Lens” (2022) and "When 'Home' Becomes the 'Field': Ethical Considerations in Digital and Remote Fieldwork” (2022).
The Zoom event is free and open to the public, but please register in advance here.
Interpretivists do Interpretive Methods Series
Audrey Alejandro (LSE) will discuss reflexivity in practice. Professor Alejandro studies discourse and knowledge, the role they play in society and world politics, how we can apprehend their effects, and what it takes to produce discourses and knowledge helping us to create a world consistent with our values. She has published extensively on reflexivity. See, for example, “How to Pay Attention to the Words we Use” (2022) and “Reflexivity for Qualitative Research Quality and the Quality of Qualitative Research” (2024).
This talk will take place from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM (Eastern Time), via Zoom.
The talk is open to the public, but registration is required. Please register by clicking here.
Two Workshops Celebrating the Publication of
Doing Interpretive Research: Learning and Teaching Imagination in Social Researchby Koen Bartels & Hendrik Wagenaar, Oxford University Press, 2025.
This June, Koen Bartels and Hendrik Wagenaar published a new book that offers both guidance and inspiration for those engaging with interpretive research — as learners, teachers, and practitioners.
Join the Rutgers Digital Ethnography Working Group for our upcoming Book Talk with Jordan Kraemer, author of "Mobile City"!
Friday, October 24, 2025
1-2:30 pm EST
Online
Please join the Rutgers Digital Ethnography Working Group (DEWG) for our upcoming Book Talk with Dr. Jordan Kraemer, author of Mobile City: Emerging Media, Space, and Sociality in Contemporary Berlin!
The conversation is moderated by Dr. Jeff Lane, co-director of the Rutgers Digital Ethnography Working Group, and Grant Lattanzi, PhD student in the Rutgers Department of Journalism and Media Studies!
All members of the Group are invited to attend the annual Interpretive Methodologies & Methods Business Meeting at APSA’s 2025 Annual Meeting in Vancouver, BC. Recipients of the Group’s awards will be announced.
Thursday Sep 11, 2025
19:30 to 21:00 PDT
Women, Gender, and Politics Research Section Reception, with recognition of Dvora Yanow and Peregrine Schwarz-Shea’s contributions to the discipline and to the Method’s Cafe
