Visual Politics Research Program
Please click here for a preliminary announcement about our Visual Politics Research Program events for the second semester of 2026. While still a couple of months away, please click the links for more details and dates. All events will be held at the Swedish Defence University in Stockholm and will be both in-person and online.
Madonna Kalousian Discusses Living with War
Dr. Madonna Kalousian (King’s College London) is a Research Associate in the Department of War Studies, working on the research project, Mapping Injury, led by Professor Vivienne Jabri. The project investigates ‘injury’ in its multiple sites and manifestations in the Global South, and its impact on political agency and global mechanisms of response. Madonna’s current work for Mapping Injury focuses on societal, cultural, and political entanglements of injury and justice at a number of sites in Lebanon, with a particular focus on questions relating to population displacement, the absence of infrastructure provision, and legacies of war on the cityscapes and landscapes of Lebanon, including the Beirut Port explosion and continuing international conflict in south Lebanon.
The talk is open to the public, but registration is required. Please register by clicking here.
Lisa Wedeen Does Meaning, Culture, and Politics
Lisa Wedeen is the Mary R. Morton Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the College and Director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory at the University of Chicago. She is also Associate Faculty in Anthropology. Her publications include three books: Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria (1999; with a new preface, 2015); Peripheral Visions: Publics, Power, and Performance in Yemen (2008); and Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria (2019).
The talk is open to the public, but registration is required. Please register by clicking here.
Vivien Schmidt Discusses the Power of Ideas and Discourse for Interpretive Methods
Vivien Schmidt (Professor Emerita, Boston University) will speak about the power of ideas and discourses, drawing from her recently published book The Power of Ideas and Discourse in Political Analysis: A Discursive Institutionalist Perspective (Oxford 2026), which provides a sweeping appraisal of how ideas and discourse are used by policymakers and everyday citizens to understand the world, communicate with one another, and mobilize for collective action. Her scholarly research is situated at the intersection of political theory, comparative politics, and international relations.
The talk is open to the public, but registration is required. Please register by clicking here.
Denise Walsh Does Critical Frame Analysis
Denise Walsh’s (University of Virginia) research asks how liberal democracies can become more inclusive and just. Her most recent book, Imperial Sexism: Why Culture and Women's Rights Don’t Clash (Oxford University Press, 2025), won the 2026 ISA Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Book Prize. The book compares the face veil ban in France, polygyny in South Africa, and Indigenous women’s Indian status in Canada to argue that a clash between culture and women’s rights is never inescapable. She uncovers what fuels this widely held perception and shows how justice can be advanced for minoritized women and their communities.
The talk is open to the public, but registration is required. Please register by clicking here.
Kimala Price Does Narrative Analysis
Kimala Price (San Diego State University) will discuss her use of narrative analysis in this session of the Interpretivists do Interpretive Methods. Professor Price's studies reproductive health policy and politics. Her book, Reproductive Politics in the United States (Routledge, 2021) makes use of an explicitly feminist framework to analyze how the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and other markers of difference are implicated in protest and policy. Additionally, Professor Price has a strong commitment to feminist activism and policy advocacy, and has been active, for more than three decades, the reproductive rights and reproductive justice movements.
The talk is open to the public but registration is required: click here.
Joe Soss Studies Governance from the Bottom Up
Joe Soss is the inaugural Cowles Chair for the Study of Public Service at the University of Minnesota, where he holds faculty positions in the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs and, as an affiliate, the Departments of Political Science and Sociology. His research and teaching explore the interplay of politics, social inequalities, and public policy. He is particularly interested in how governance intersects with relations of domination, oppression, and predation in the United States.
The talk is open to the public, but registration is required. Please register by clicking here.
Sarah Parkinson Does Social Network Theory and Analysis
Sarah Parkinson (Johns Hopkins University) will discuss social network theory and analysis. Her research examines organizational behavior and social change in war- and disaster-affected settings, with a focus on Southwest Asia and North Africa. Dr. Parkinson’s book, Beyond the Lines: Social Networks and Palestinian Militant Organizations in Wartime Lebanon (Cornell University Press, 2022) won the 2023 Routledge Lee Ann Fujii Award for Innovation in the Interpretive Study of Political Violence.
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.
Interpretive Policy Analysis conference
💥 Interpretive Policy Analysis conference update 💥
The call for papers is now open for the IPA-EUR 2027 in Budapest!
APSA Panel: Theory, Interpretation, and Praxis
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.
APSA Panel: Advancing Interpretive Methods
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.
APSA Roundtable: Teaching and Cultivating Interpretive Methods in Political Science
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.
Methods Café 2026 @ APSA
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.
APSA IMM Short Course
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.
IPA2026BR proposal deadline
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.
John Boswell does Meta-Ethnography
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.
2026 Spotlight Scholars Presentation
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.
How Does a Policy Mean? @ 30
A worldwide thirtieth anniversary celebration of Dvora Yanow ’s How Does a Policy Mean? (Georgetown UP, 1996).
Anastasia Shesterinina does Life History Interviewing
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.
Rich Nielsen Tries to Develop an Ethnographic Sensibility
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.
Samantha Majic Researches/Interprets Online Platforms
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.
Sophie Harman Did Film
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.
Marnie Howlett Discusses Online Interviewing
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.
Audrey Alejandro Discusses Reflexivity in Practice
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.
Doing Interpretive Research: Book Launch Workshops
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.
Book Talk with Jordan Kraemer
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!
IMM Business Meeting
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.
2025 APSA IMM Events
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
2025 APSA IMM Events
Thursday Sep 11, 2025
16:00 to 17:30 PDT
Methods Café (20th Anniversary Celebration)
Chaired by Be Stone (Rhodes College), Robin Turner (Butler University), and Biko Koenig (Franklin and Marshall College).
2025 APSA IMM Events
Thursday Sep 11, 2025
14:00 to 15:30 PDT
Author Meets Critics: "What Does the American Presidency Mean?"
Presenters: Richard Holzman (Bryant University), Anne Norton (University of Pennsylvania), Diane Rubenstein, Jeffrey Tulis (University of Texas at Austin) and David Zarefsky (Northwestern University); chaired by Charles Zug (University of Missouri)
2025 APSA IMM Events
Thursday Sep 11, 2025
12:00 to 13:00 PDT
Panel: “Interpretive Lenses on Political Meaning-Making and Mobilization”
Presenters: Biko Koenig (Franklin and Marshall College), Santos Javier Rivera-Cardona (Rutgers University), Lauren Marie Baker (University of Nebraska), Be Stone (Rhodes College) and Juan Wang (McGill University); Chaired by Tania Islas Weinstein (McGill University), and Samuel Ritholtz (University of Oxford) as discussant.
2025 APSA IMM Events
Thursday Sep 11, 2025
08:00 to 09:30 PDT
Panel: “Caring for the Other: Rethinking Political Science in Uncertain Times”
Presenters: Ronay Bakan (Johns Hopkins University), Maria Méndez Gutiérrez (University of Toronto); Lahoma Thomas (Toronto Metropolitan University); Sara Parkinson (Johns Hopkins University) and Mneesha Gellman (Emerson College); Chaired by Helen Kinsella (University of Minnesota), with Nadia Brown (Georgetown University) discussing.
2025 APSA IMM Events
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
13:30 to 17:30 PDT
Short Course: Interpretive Process Analytics (QMMR) Jeffrey T. Checkel, EUI
2025 IPSA Methods Café in Seoul, Korea
The Methods Café is an innovation of Professors Dvora Yanow and Peri Schwartz-Shea, intending to bring together people with methods questions in an informal setting with light refreshments. In this 20th year of the Methods Café, and after long hiatus, we are reconvening the Methods Café at the International Political Science Association in Seoul.
Starting a project? Thinking about methods design? Questions about managing fieldwork? Ethics questions? Need guidance to respond to journals? Strategies to convince your committee? The Methods Café is for you!
Mike Rowe studies Street-Level Bureaucrats
Interpretivists do Interpretive Methods Series
Mike Rowe (University of Liverpool) will discuss the value the value of interpretive analysis for the study of street-level bureaucrats—from police officers, to social workers, and teachers, drawing from his recently published book, Researching Street-level Bureaucracy, recently published with the Routledge Series on Interpretive Methods. This talk is part of a series of events leading up to the 25th anniversary of the Methods Café.
This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Click here to register.
James Curry does Legislative Studies through an Interpretive Lens
Interpretivists do Interpretive Methods Series
James M. Curry (University of Utah) will speak about the value and importance of interpretive research to understand the American legislative branch, drawing from his book, Understanding American Legislatures: The Need for Interpretive-Qualitative Research, which is forthcoming with the Routledge Series on Interpretive Methods. This talk is part of a series of events leading up to the 25th anniversary of the Methods Café.
This event is free and open to the public but registration is required. Click here to register.