The 2026 APSA theme, “Democracy under Threat: How to Understand, Protect, and Rebuild,” invites political scientists to consider the crises facing democracies across the globe, and how societies can protect and rebuild democratic rights, norms, institutions, and practices when they are under attack. Our proposed Methods Café speaks directly to this theme by bringing together a set of scholars with broad-ranging interpretive methods and pedagogical expertise in areas ranging from collaborative methodologies, interdisciplinary research, and political ethnography, to queer theory, teaching interpretive methods, and researching violence. At the café, these scholars are available to anyone who wishes to seek advice, solve problems, or discuss the topic they specialize in, especially studying issues related to democratic retrenchment and resuscitation.

The café is not a panel or roundtable session where presenters prepare formal presentations on their topics and speak in sequence. Instead, it is an informal setting—“a café” with multiple tables and places to sit—that allows for one-on-one and group discussions, networking and support. Here, cafe “visitors” will find several round tables set up in the café meeting room; each table has a placard which displays the method being discussed at that table (e.g., “Interviewing”) and one or two “specialists” in that research method sitting at that table. The café will also include tables with journal editors and representatives from funding agencies who are familiar with these methods. Topics and the names of the specialists are listed in the conference program, and one or more hosts positioned at the room’s entrance helps people figure out who is sitting where and further explain the process.

“Visitors” to the café are invited to arrive at any point in the time block allotted, visit any table they like, and stay as long as they like. A visitor might approach a table, sit down, and ask the specialist to talk about how they use the method on offer at that table. If a conversation is already under way, others can join in or just sit and listen. One need not worry about having questions that are “too elementary”—it is fine to ask anything about that method, at any level!—and visitors may leave the table or room at any time. Altogether, we encourage visitors to circulate among as many tables as they wish, and we ask only that they sign in at each table they visit—our way of evaluating the demand for each topic.

Visitors at past cafés have ranged from doctoral students to full professors. The range of questions is equally broad and might include:
● “What is X method?” or
● “I’m in the midst of analyzing my data and I’ve run into [describes a specific problem], how should I handle it?” or
● “One of my committee members/reviewers/etc. doesn’t believe that interpretive methods are valid. How can I respond to this challenge?”

Initiated by Dvora Yanow and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea in 2005, the Methods Café has been a successful and celebrated feature of APSA for twenty-one years, with more than eighty specialists representing more than fifty research approaches.

Be Stone - Chair, Rhodes College, stoneb@rhodes.edu
Robin L. Turner - Chair, Butler University, rlturne1@butler.edu