Research Digest No. 1
Dear all,
We are delighted to introduce a new resource for scholars using interpretive approaches to study politics: the APSA Interpretive Methodologies and Methods Research Digest.
The APSA IMM related group is excited to offer a quarterly round-up of articles drawing on empirical interpretive methods that are published in political science and field-adjacent journals. The new IMM Research Digest acknowledges and amplifies scholarship applying many modes of interpretive research – e.g., ethnography, historical case studies, narrative analysis, (audio)visual methods – to a wide swath of topics and cases. Across this diversity, the scholars featured in the Digest share commitments to seeking out the perspectives of those they study and approaching the political world as intersubjective, socially constructed, and historically situated.
Our Research Digest will serve as a regularly published repository that scholars can review to support their research, teaching, and mentorship. As such it will include both methods-based and methods-applied articles across a spectrum of interpretive approaches as well as a variety of political science subfields and research clusters. We particularly hope the Digest will serve to keep our community apprised of emerging scholars, thus helping to expand connections and collaborations as well as provide current resources for everything from syllabi construction to idea development.
With these goals in mind, rather than create an ordered “top X” list, we aim for the Digest collectively to be representative across professional level, journal ranking, region/subfield focus, and demographics. See our notes at the end on how we assembled Digest No. 1, December 2025.
We hope you find this to be a useful resource. We welcome feedback and encourage suggestions for articles to include in future digests. Self-nominations are welcome. Please contact Lisel Hintz at Liselhintz1@gmail.com.
IMM Research Digest No. 1 (December 2025)
Aggarwal, Minali and Micah English. “Pop Culture and the Evolving Politics of the Right: The Potential of Interpretive Methods for Studying Gender, Race, and Politics.” Politics & Gender (2025): 21(2).
Abstract
Scholars of gender have long realized that questions regarding gender, women, and politics require a multi-method, nuanced approach. When a plurality of white women voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, social scientists increasingly began to recognize the urgency of undertaking new approaches to understanding gender, race, and voting behavior in the United States.1 Since then, researchers have helped us understand why so many white women support right-wing candidates and policies that aim to suppress their autonomy, offering explanations such as the influence of belief in traditional gender roles (Christley 2022), “possessive investments in white heteropatriarchy” (Strolovitch, Wong, and Proctor 2017, 354), and “gendered nationalism” in American politics (Deckman and Cassese 2021, 278). In more recent years — as election results and polling suggest growing numbers of men of color have shifted rightward — there has been increased interest in employing an intersectional approach to analyze the gulf between men and women of color.
Cornwall, Andrea, Telma Hoyler, Emma Crewe, and Cristiane Bernardes. “Ethnography on the Plural: Experimenting with Collective Ethnography in Research on Politics and Politicians in Brazil.” Ethnography (2025): published online 9 July.
Abstract
Developments in qualitative research have increasingly recognized the value of modes of ethnographic inquiry that go beyond the conventional model of the lone ethnographer. Many examples involve parallel, collaborative enquiry in which ethnographers come together around frameworks, share data and collaborate in analysis – rather than working as a collective throughout the research process, including fieldwork, what we refer to here as ‘collective ethnography’. Less has been written on doing collective ethnography as a practice. Through a series of vignettes, this article tells the story of a research experiment in collective ethnography, focusing on politicians and their social worlds in São Paulo, Brazil. We suggest that an engaged process of collective enquiry offers sources of insight that usually lie beyond the ethnographic gaze: including into our own conduct and the choices we make in our ethnographic encounters and interpretive avenues.
Geddes, Marc and Cherry Miller. “Interpreting Parliaments, But How? Centring Parliamentary Actors and Setting in Ethnographic Design and Practice.” British Journal of Politics and International Relations (2025): 27(3).
Abstract
Do researchers that use ethnographic methods study parliaments and parliamentary actors in the same way? While parliamentary ethnography is a growing research methodology to study political phenomena, such as informality, political behaviour and interpretations of parliamentary work, less is said about how access to sites and actors may affect analytical foci, strategies and outcomes. This neglects the complexity of parliamentary organisation and distinctive practices of parliamentary actors. We draw attention to this complexity to investigate how different levels and types of access to parliaments, and actors therein, affect ethnographic research. We reflect on this issue through four themes: (1) entry and access, (2) adapting to organisational rhythms, (3) ethnographic capital of researchers and (4) analysis and publication of findings. We argue that there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way of undertaking ethnographies of parliaments, but emphasise that researchers must explicitly reflect on how their particular strategies may shape ethnographic research on parliaments.
Koenig, Biko and Tali Mendelberg. “The Symbolic Politics of Status in the MAGA Movement.” Perspectives on Politics (2025): published online 3 September.
Abstract
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among Make America Great Again (MAGA) activists during the 2020 presidential campaign, we explore the status dynamics behind the appeal of Donald Trump’s right-wing populism. While existing explanations emphasize partisanship, economic anxiety, racial resentment, rural identity, and media polarization, we underscore a less-explored explanation for Trump’s core support: it is a status-based social movement. We find that Trump’s activists are not simply voters responding to policy preferences or culture-war appeals but are also participants in a grassroots social movement organized around a shared perception of lost honor, declining esteem, and institutional disrespect. To make this argument we use the concept of the symbolic politics of status to explain how political conflict extends beyond contests over material distribution or moral values to include battles over whose values and lifestyles are considered worthy. For MAGA activists, reclaiming lost status means seeking public affirmation for identities they feel have been unfairly denigrated. The MAGA movement blends grievance with joy, cultivating pride, belonging, and celebration alongside anger at elites. By centering status in our analysis, we offer an integrative framework that connects material, cultural, and emotional motivations into a broader account of MAGA as a right-wing social movement grounded in grassroots populism.
Maass, Richard W. and Robbie Shilliam. “Racialization in History and Theory: World War II, Ethiopia, and Colorblindness in International Relations.” European Journal of International Relations (2025): published online 9 October.
Abstract
World War II was saturated by racialized dynamics including imperialism, racist ideologies, persecution of racial minorities, and genocide. It was also the foundational conflict that inspired modern international relations, a field that during the late 20th century grew notable for its colorblindness—refusing to reflect on the potential importance of racialized dynamics in world politics. Why did a field built to explain such racialized events come to elevate disciplinary historiographies that centered colorblind theories? We argue that the excision of race played a constitutive role in recasting what had previously been a more organically intertwined relationship between history and theory, shaping both portrayals of the field’s “core” as well as its subsequent historical “turns.” Interrogating how geopolitical, professional, and societal pressures shaped processes of exclusion and portrayal in the construction of postwar histories and theories, this article demonstrates how racialized dynamics shaped the League of Nations’ failure to address Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia, how historical narratives of World War II excluded those dynamics, and how International Relations (IR) scholars constructed influential disciplinary historiographies around colorblind frameworks. Our findings shed fresh light on the relationship between history and theory while also helping the contemporary field reintegrate considerations of race in IR theory.
Mondragón-Celis, Agnes and Tania Islas Weinstein. “Performative Infrastructures: Populism and the Material Politics of Militarization in Contemporary Mexico.” Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space (2025): published online 28 May.
Abstract
Upon taking office in December 2018, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) began financing large-scale infrastructural projects across the country, including the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), to be built and managed by the Mexican Armed Forces. Over 2 years into its 2022 inauguration, the AIFA has negligible air traffic but an enormous presence in the public sphere. Drawing on literature on populism and the politics of infrastructure, this article explores how the airport’s main role lies less in its logistical operations than in redrawing the relationship between the Mexican Army and “the people.” Through ethnographic and media analysis of the airport’s abundant propaganda—particularly a feature-length documentary—we analyze how this infrastructure serves as a site for ideological work by and for the Army. We argue that, by helping to normalize militarization as they advance it by their construction and operation, infrastructures may possess the performative power to rewrite the boundaries between civilian and military life. By mobilizing the tools of advertisement and propaganda, infrastructures may showcase processes like Mexico’s militarization in sanitized and partial ways. This article thus situates infrastructures not as the product of a political order, but rather as capable of bringing a new such order into existence.
Němec, Jiří and Bojana Zorić. “Friends or Foes within the Pan-Slavic Brotherhood: A Narrative Analysis of Aleksandar Vučić’s Stance on Russia’s Aggression Against Ukraine.” Nationalities Papers (2025): 53(3).
Abstract
Amidst the Russian aggression against Ukraine, peace and stability within the geostrategic region of the Western Balkans have come under the spotlight. While some have called for the “denazification” of the Balkans, others have firmly supported Ukraine. Among the six non-European Union states in the Balkans, the Republic of Serbia is perceived as the most visible and longstanding supporter, akin to a brotherly state, of the Russian Federation. This article aims to investigate President Vučić’s narrative in his Addresses to the Nation concerning the war in Ukraine. The objective is to gain a better understanding of Serbia’s foreign policy positioning with regard to the conflict in Ukraine. Anchored in the Regional Security Complex theory, the article examines President Vučić’s Addresses to the Nation from February 2022 to February 2023, revealing Serbia’s consistent insistence on independent decision-making in foreign policy matters, including in the context of the war in Ukraine. These Addresses to the Nation further reinforce the notion of Serbia’s multi-vector foreign policy, while also utilizing the war in Ukraine to reignite public discussions on the importance of Kosovo to Serbia’s foreign policy.
Pantzerhielm, Laura. “Archeology as a Critical Mode of Inquiry in Global Politics.” European Journal of International Relations (2025): published online 18 September.
Abstract
The reception of Michel Foucault’s work has been extensive in International Relations (IR). Yet the bulk of Foucauldian scholarship has favored genealogy, discourse, and governmentality at the expense of archeology. As a result, the discipline’s engagement with Foucault’s early writings and the elaborate meta-theoretical reflections he assembled in The Archeology of Knowledge has remained sporadic and dispersed. Despite decades of productive Foucauldian research agendas in IR, the question what an archeological outlook entails and what it might offer to the discipline therefore remains unanswered. In this article, I address this research gap by exploring what is at stake in archeology as a mode of inquiry and I argue that it bears unrealized critical and creative potentials for IR, International Political Sociology, and the study of global politics. Specifically, I aim to show that archeology aids in the craft of political ontologies: it can be mobilized to formulate interpretive strategies and conceptual tools for rendering visible the relational constitution and power-ridden emergence of the social worlds that we study and inhabit. The article critically interrogates the reception of Foucauldian ideas in IR and formulates an innovative plea for (re)turning to archeology and taking it seriously as a way of conducting critical IR research. Moreover, the article also contributes to conversations on critical methodology and the art of scholarly inquiry in IR and beyond by providing an in-depth discussion of how archeology can be mobilized and what work it may perform in empirical research endeavors.
Sarı, İbrahim Ekrem. “Resisting Erasure: Queer Artistic Reclamation in the Face of Political Homophobia.” Third World Quarterly (2025): published online 4 September.
Abstract
Populist right-wing governments often deploy political homophobia to construct a scapegoated ‘other’ that distracts and deviates societies for political goals. This manifests in anti-LGBTQ+ discourse within political spheres, functioning as a Panopticon: a system of surveillance and control that excludes, categorises, and restricts individuals, leading to epistemic silencing and the erasure of queer heritage. In such contexts, queer individuals are denied societal recognition, limiting their ability to contribute to cultural and epistemic life. This paper examines queer artistic practices in Turkey as a means of resisting epistemic injustice. It focuses on the impact of the state’s Islamist-nationalist discourse on queer communities and investigates how queer heritage is systematically effaced. Using arts-based research and narrative inquiry, artworks are approached as narrative tools that challenge dominant discourses. The study argues that while queer communities in Turkey face systematic erasure, they also engage in resistance by appropriating neo-Ottoman visual aesthetics and positioning queer subjects at the centre of their work. Through this strategy, they assert their presence and reclaim historical narrative. This paper contributes to growing scholarship on epistemic justice by proposing queer art as a form of resistance and a method of re-inscribing marginalised histories into the cultural record.
Udenze, Silas, Antonio Telo Roig, and Fernanda Pires. “Implicit Collective Memory and How It Fuels Implicit Activism in Nigeria’s EndSARS Movement: A Digital Ethnographic Journey.” Memory Studies (2025): published online 11 September.
Abstract
This article expands upon the prevailing focus on social movement and explicit memory primarily centred around commemorations, to focus on implicit memory as a driving force for social movements in the context of the EndSARS in Nigeria. This study’s specific research question is: How does implicit memory fuel implicit activism in the EndSARS movement? To answer this question, we employed a digital ethnographic approach. Our results indicate three themes which explain how implicit collective memory fuels implicit activism: (a) shared socioeconomic trauma, (b) subtle artistic expressions and (c) the historical context of police brutality. We conclude that understanding the interplay between implicit activism and implicit collective memory is vital for comprehending the dynamics of modern social movements and their potential for social change. As we continue to witness the fusion of digital platforms with activist practices, it is crucial to explore the evolution of this relationship in the context of social and political change, not only in Nigeria but across the globe.
Curious about how this Digest came together? Here’s a quick breakdown of what I did.
I used Google Scholar to search for articles using "since 2025."
I included both those published online and anything assigned a journal number in 2025.
I used combinations of search terms like interpretive, ethnography, narrative analysis, intertextual, and critical discourse, all with "political science" as a text qualifier. I did this a bunch of times and adjusted the search terms based on what I was finding.
I also did a bit of targeted searching. When few pieces came up for Africa, for example, I searched specifically for something on/from the region. This may get fuzzy, but I aimed for representativeness.
I tried to include both methods-centric and applied methods articles, as well as journals of different rankings
I left out book chapters as they may be 1) less accessible and 2) more "review-ish.”
I tried to pick empirical interpretive approaches rather than largely normative ones/political theory studies, but there are normative elements to most/all of them.
I aim for future digests to include article suggestions and self-nominations from readers.
Happy reading, teaching, and citing!
Lisel Hintz
Liselhintz1@gmail.com
Upcoming talks in the Interpretivists do Interpretive Methods Series
All the events below are held on a Friday at 12:00 PM Eastern Time.
We hope you can join us!
December 12, 2025: “Sophie Harman Did Film.”
Sophie Harman (Queen Mary University of London) will discuss how she turned her research into an award-winning short film called Pili. Professor Harman’s research focuses on global health, with a particular interest in African Agency, film and visual methods, and gender politics. Register here.
January 30, 2026: “Samantha Majic Researches/Interprets Online Platforms.”
Samantha Majic (John Jay College and the CUNY Graduate Center) will discuss her trials and tribulations doing research on the internet. Professor Majic studies gender and American politics, with specific interests in sex work, wellness politics, celebrity and politics, and civic engagement. Read more here and register here.
February 13, 2026: “Rich Nielsen tries to Develop an Ethnographic Sensibility.”
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. Read more here and register here.
