Research Methods

Catalog description

Political Science is driven by curiosity and a desire to comprehend how the political world works. In this class, students will learn how to ask the right questions about particular events or processes in order to come to some preliminary understanding of them. In order to help answer these questions, the course focuses on two logics of political inquiry, quantitative and qualitative. Students will familiarize themselves with both approaches through a series of projects including surveys, in-depth interviewing, and participant observation, focused on local politics. They will thereby also hone their research and writing skills that will prepare them for their Senior Seminar thesis, further graduate school, as well as a wide variety of professions within and outside of the field of Political Science.