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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. Rønn and Jacobsen present novel conceptual and practical tools for Ordinary Language Interviewing (OLI), a method that has until now been under-elaborated. Wheeler uses a Buddhist framework--the product of fieldwork serendipity--to examine the transformation of the self through the co-creation of knowledge. Glas and Weitzel take stock of the state of specifically interpretive (rather than broadly qualitative) methods training across graduate political science programs. Baker highlights the political potential of technical topics under authoritarian conditions. As they push interpretive methods forward, these papers also employ trademark interpretive tools: autoethnography, self-study, and the generation of portable insights from deeply grounded fieldwork.

Read more on the APSA 2026 Online Program.

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September 5

APSA Roundtable: Teaching and Cultivating Interpretive Methods in Political Science

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September 6

APSA Panel: Theory, Interpretation, and Praxis