Dear colleagues, 

We are happy to invite you to the fourth installment of the DiMES (Digital Methods and Empirical Social Science Center) workshop series. 

On July 17th (Thursday) and 18th (Friday), 2025, Prof. Audrey Alejandro (London School of Economics and Political Science) will teach a two-day in-person workshop on Qualitative Text and Discourse Analysis (see below for a short introduction). The workshop is primarily open to PhD students, postdocs, and faculty of FB PolSoz. In addition, please consider inviting advanced students with a specific interest in the topic. 

The workshop is funded by DiMES and offered free of cost to participants. However, we do require reliable registration to plan the workshop. To register, please fill out this form by June 30th, 2025. We plan to offer up to 20 seats. If registrations exceed the limit, PhD students and postdocs from PolSoz will be given preference, and the remainder of the seats will be distributed first-come, first-serve. 

If you have any questions about this workshop, please reach out to Jo-Ju (Ru) Kao (jo-ju.kao@fu-berlin.de). We are also interested in suggestions for workshop topics or lecturers, as we plan to organize another workshop in 2025 and additional ones in 2026. 

Best regards, 

Ru (and Marko & Bruno)

 

Overview

How can we use texts and discourses to create meaning about the social world? This 2-day workshop introduces social science researchers to the most common methods used to analyse texts and discourse: discourse analysis, thematic analysis, and content analysis. The workshop both establishes a theoretical foundation for text/discourse analysis and takes a practical and applied approach, so that participants can acquire greater independence and confidence to conduct their research project autonomously. Beyond learning the skills of qualitative text/discourse analysis, this workshop is an invitation to produce more structured, analytical, and critical research capable of grasping not only the visible but also the invisible and implicit dimensions of politics and society. We will conclude the workshop with a session focusing on the participants' projects.

Dr. Audrey Alejandro is an Associate Professor in Qualitative Text Analysis at the Department of Methodology, LSE. She researches the politics of knowledge and discourse in society and international politics. Her work has been published in journals such as International Journal of Qualitative Methods, Qualitative Inquiry, PS: Political Science and Politics, European Journal of International Relations, International Studies Review, European Political Science, and Global Studies Quarterly.