This course provides the opportunity to focus in depth on qualitative analysis in both theory and practice, and prepares students for research at the master’s and doctoral level. Students will develop the skills necessary to conduct qualitative data analysis individually and in collaboration with others to generate new knowledge about the social world.

This course provides students with a range of strategies for qualitative analysis and hands-on practice developing research questions and analytical strategies. Students will learn to code data using CAQDAS software and gain experience carrying out analysis in both individual and collaborative projects. We will focus on validity, reliability, and generalizability, and will consider the particular issues qualitative data present for conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement. We will discuss the strengths and limitations of qualitative data and will practice diverse inductive and deductive strategies for analysis. We will learn how to read manifest and latent content, promote inter-coder reliability, use and handle data ethically, and will develop codebooks and collaborative analyses. 

The course is open to master’s and PhD students with an interest in qualitative research.