Unified Session

Sunday, June 14

Jaye Seawright (Northwestern University), David Waldner (University of Virginia), and Lisa Wedeen (University of Chicago), with Sebastian Karcher (Syracuse University) and Diana Kapiszewski (Georgetown University)

These “Unified Sessions,” which all IQMR participants attend, welcome them to the Institute and introduce some of its intellectual foci. Three faculty who have long taught at IQMR will consider the epistemological diversity that underpins qualitative and multi-method research, consider some of the core methods used by scholars in the QMMR community, and think about ways that qualitative and quantitative methods can be combined. The sessions serve as general introductions to the module sequences that participants will take at IQMR.

9:00am – 9:45am – Introduction

Diana Kapiszewski and Sebastian Karcher

This session considers IQMR’s history and how it has evolved, considers the overall themes and emphases of instruction, and discusses the Institute’s intellectual and sociological goals. The session also considers key points of the Institute’s administration and logistics, and offers participants some suggestions for how they might think about, and orient themselves with regard to, their two weeks at IQMR.

9:45am - 10:45am – Qualitative Methodology

David Waldner

This session locates qualitative methods within the broader field of models of inference. Models of inference are domain-specific forms of reasoning that yield valid conclusions. When our goal is to make inferences about population parameters from sample statistics, we reason by the procedures of statistical inference, while we reason by the criteria of causal inference when we wish to determine whether an observed association can be given a causal interpretation. Qualitative methods fall under the broad rubric of the detective model of inference, a set of rules for valid reasoning when we seek the best explanation of an observed set of facts. Process tracing is the best operational form of the detective model when we wish to explain particular outcomes. Process tracing produces valid conclusions, however, only when we satisfy the relevant domain restrictions. Our research projects, however, often trespass into the domain of causal inference, at which point process tracing is vulnerable to false positives. Qualitative methodology thus needs an identification strategy that will allow us to seek the best explanation of a set of facts while simultaneously avoiding false positives. Qualitative causal inference is a hybrid approach that merges elements of the causal inference approach with traditional process tracing methods. With this hybrid method, we can produce superior explanations while minimizing the potential of false positives.

Required reading:

David Waldner, Qualitative Causal Inference and Explanation (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming [June 2026]), Chapter 1.

11:15am – 12:15pm – Multi-Method Research and Causal Identification

Jaye Seawright

This session asks how qualitatively- and mixed-method oriented researchers ought to relate with the large, even hegemonic, quantitative and statistical literatures on causal inference. We will discuss the potential outcomes framework for causation, qualitative ideas about causation, and questions of compatibility and incommensurability. We will then consider the way that knowledge claims within the quantitative causal inference framework are grounded on statements about cases, contexts, processes, etc., and how these statements open the door to productive dialogue, collaboration, and critique between findings from different methodological traditions.

Required readings:

Freedman, David A. “Statistical models and shoe leather.” Sociological methodology (1991): 291-313.
Seawright, Jason. (2016) Better Multimethod Design: The Promise of Integrative Multimethod Research Security Studies 25(1): 42-49 https://doi.org/10.1080/09636412.2016.1134187

2:15pm - 3:30pm – The Interpretive Approach to Qualitative Research

Lisa Wedeen

This session introduces students to interpretive methods. “Interpretive social science” is a rubric that refers to a variety of epistemological, methodological, and political commitments. This session helps us understand what interpretive social science involves and grapples with one of its key concepts, “culture.” It demonstrates how notions of political culture (now revitalized in formal theory and causal inference research) remain problematic and how the turn to Geertz among some political scientists is similarly inadequate. The session concludes by showcasing ways to operationalize a practice-oriented version of “culture.” .

Required readings:

Geertz, C. (1973). Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture. In The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays by Clifford Geertz. Basic Books. Chapter 1, 3-30. (ebook pdf is available at SU library)
Foucault, M. (1991) Questions of Method. In Foucault, M., Burchell, G., Gordon, C., & Miller, P. (1991), The Foucault Effect: Studies in governmentality. University of Chicago Press, Chapter 3, 73-86.

4:00pm - 5:15pm – Roundtable

Jaye Seawright, David Waldner, and Lisa Wedeen

The final part of these “Unified Sessions” has no formal lecture component and no assigned readings. Participants are encouraged to ask questions – those they have long had, and those that have occurred to them through the day’s sessions – and to debate and discuss (with each other and with the instructors) the points raised and the future directions of qualitative and multi-method inquiry.