This doctoral level course aims to develop students knowledge and skills of qualitative research methods in communication. Students explore different ontological, epistemological and related methodological perspectives of qualitative research in applied contexts, professional practice, and cultural settings. The course leads students to engage with high-level readings of primary sources for designing and implementing qualitative research projects and to develop interpretive/hermeneutic skills. This will include such readings as Goffman's work on the presentation of social identity, Garfinkel on sociological order, Geertz on thick description, Kress and van Leeuwen on social semiotics, and Bakhtin on polyvocality. Students will gain competency in a range of qualitative methods and analytic tools, including interviews, focus groups, participant observation, ethnography, thematic analysis, and multimodal analysis. Finally, students will apply such knowledge to writing research papers for their thesis project and publication in refereed English-language journals.

CILO-1: Describe ways of formulating and designing qualitative inquiry. CILO-2: Identify the strengths and limitations of qualitative research methods in communication studies. CILO-3: Discuss how to design and analyse qualitative research project, including such methods as interviewing, observing, digital, and other forms of data. CILO-4: Apply research methods and design to a topic that the student will explore in their thesis.