Interpretive Methodologies and Methods APSA

We are excited to announce our first research digest which aims to provide a resource for scholars using interpretive approaches to study politics!

For access to our resources, including the quarterly digest, please sign up to our mailing list @ www.interpretivemethods.com/join-us

The Politics and Practice of Truth: Critical and Interpretive Perspectives on the Relationship Between Evidence and Policy in Post-Truth Times European Consortium for Political Research

ECPR call for papers out now with the Critical and Interpretive Policy Analysis Network section looking very interesting. Check below for more details:

ecpr.eu/Events/Event...

Upcoming Interpretivists do Interpretive Methods Series - Friday Dec 12 @ 12-13:30 EST.

Sophie Harman will discuss how she turned her research into an award-winning short film called Pili, telling the stories behind her research on global health.

Please register here: luc.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Calls for nominations for The 2026 Charles Taylor Book Award.

Nominations are open for the 2026 Charles Taylor Book Award recognizing the best book in political science that employs or develops interpretive methodologies and methods. Please see the link below for more info:

Don't miss the next in our Interpretivists do Interpretivist Methods series coming up on Friday the 14th @ 12PM EST in which Marnie Howlett Discusses Online Interviewing.

Fore more info and future sessions, check out our website!

www.interpretivemethods.com/interpretivi...

Calling all interpretivists: Still thinking about WPSA in San Diego April 2026? There’s still time to submit a proposal for Section 10: Interpretation and Method! Fill in the application here wpsanet.org/app_panel/pa... and send it to Robin Harper directly: rharper@york.cuny.edu

If you're doing interpretive work, consider making a submission to APSA's IMM related group for 2026:

convention2.allacademic.com/one/apsa/aps...

EthnographicCafé The Ethnographic Café is a place for ethnographers to meet across disciplines, generations, and countries. We gather to talk about all things ethnographic, from history, design, and method to analysis...

Michael Sierra-Arévalo will present his book The Danger Imperative Violence, Death, and the Soul of Policing to The Ethnographic Café next Friday November 7 @ 12PM PT/9PM CET on Zoom.

Head to www.ethnographiccafe.org for the zoom link if you're interested in attending!

Make sure to catch the next session of Interpretivists do Interpretive Methods series on Friday October 31st - Audrey Alejandro (LSE) will discuss reflexivity in practice.

For more info check out the IMM page: www.interpretivemethods.com/interpretivi...

2025 IPSA Methods Café in Seoul, Korea — Interpretive Methodologies and Methods The Methods Café is an innovation of Professors Dvora Yanow and Peri Schwartz-Shea, intending to bring together people with methods questions in an informal setting with light refreshments. In this 20...

www.interpretivemethods.com/upcoming-eve...

Going to @ipsa.org in Seoul? Join us at the 2025 Methods Café! Korea Time: Monday, 14 July at 12:45 p.m. Room 311 AB. Chair: Robin Harper, York College / CUNY. We'll be talking about participatory action research, fieldwork ethics, critical discourse analysis, interviewing, and much more.

Interpretive Political Science | The Political Studies Association (PSA) The group takes a broad view of interpretation as encompassing all those interested in exploring beliefs, languages, traditions, and practices as they appear in and construct the political. Relevant a...

The Interpretive Political Science Specialist Group at the PSA (www.psa.ac.uk/specialist-g...) is calling for new convenor based in Western Europe as Rod Rhodes is standing down after 25 years.

If you are interested, please contact r.a.w.rhodes@soton.ac.uk and/or april.stockings@psa.ac.uk.

Australian Journal of Political Science Doing interpretive political science — in Australia. Volume 59, Issue 4 of Australian Journal of Political Science

The Australian Journal of Political Science just released a fantastic special issue on doing interpretive political science in Australia. These articles are relevant to anyone interested in interpretive political science, not just those in Australia.

Vol 59, No 4 www.tandfonline.com/toc/cajp20/5...

For those podcast inclined, Nick Cheesman's Interpretive Political and Social Science podcast series on the New Books Network is an excellent resource, with interviews of exemplary authors and editors of interpretivist works: newbooksnetwork.com/category/spe...

CfP, Conference on Façade Politics Conference on Façade Politics From colonial Southeast Asia to authoritarian regimes in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, scholars have identified dissimulation as a key instrument in the politics o...

CfP: Conference on Façade Politics at Yale University, May 8-9, 2026. Explores façades as collaborative means for managing conflicts and achieving compromise in politics and diplomacy. Scholars interested in presenting should submit title and abstract by May 2, 2025. For details see: bit.ly/441hsf7.

The deadline to submit nominations for book and paper awards from IMM is March 30, 2025. Self-nominations welcomed!

Details on the awards, which recognize books, articles, and conference papers, are available on the IMM website: https://www.<wbr>interpretivemethods.com/<wbr>summary-of-awards

The Honorable Mention for the Hawyard Alker Best Paper Award goes to Ronay Bakan, of Johns Hopkins University, for the paper “Fieldwork as Carework: Solidarity in the Disaster of the Century/Century of Disasters”, presented at APSA’s 2024 Virtual Research Meeting. Congratulations!

The Hayward Alker Best Student Paper Award winner is Jasmin English, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for the paper “Dilemmas of Accommodation: Diverse Associations and the Avoidance of Racial Difference”, presented at MPSA 2023 and WPSA 2023. Congratulations!

The Honorable Mention for the Charles Taylor Book Award goes to Asad L. Asad, Stanford, University, for his book Engage and Evade: How Latino Immigrant Families Manage Surveillance in Everyday Life (Princeton University Press, 2023). Congratulations!

The 2024 Charles Taylor Book Award goes to Osman Balkan, University of Pennsylvania, for his book Dying Abroad: The Political Afterlives of Migration in Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Congratulations!

The 2024 IMM Grain of Sand Award, honoring a lifetime achievement in interpretive scholarship, goes to William H. Sewell from the University of Chicago.

IMM is pleased to announce its 2024 award winners! Sincere thanks to the award committees for their work. Awards will be presented at the IMM business meeting on September 6 at 6:30 p.m. in Philadelphia. All are welcome. Congratulations to our award recipients and see you at APSA!

Final reminder: Please submit your @apsa.bsky.social proposals to the Interpretive Methodologies and Methods Related Group by Wednesday, January 17, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific. We look forward to your submissions!

Interpretive political scientists -- a reminder of the Jan 17 APSA @apsa.bsky.social deadline for paper and panel submissions. We're looking forward to your great ideas! And enormous thanks to @liselhintz.bsky.social for serving as the 2024 IMM panel coordinator!