About This Course

Research designs are much like jigsaw puzzles, but harder: they require scholars to carefully connect a variety of distinct yet intricately linked pieces into a thematically consistent, practical and defensible whole. Few tasks in the research process are as commonplace and as riddled with difficulty. This semester length course will provide a forum for students to compose a research design on the topic of sexuality using qualitative approaches that include in-depth interview and ethnography. Throughout the course, students will read a variety of works that describe the goals, procedures, and underlying logic of research design. These works will draw from articles and chapters on methodological problems and issues, and also from actual studies that use in-depth interview and ethnography in sexuality studies. In addition, in each class, students will work through problems and issues related to their own prospective research design proposals, with particular focus on the 5 sections of the research design as outlined at the back of this syllabus.