front cover of International Organizations and Research Methods
International Organizations and Research Methods
An Introduction
Fanny Badache, Leah R. Kimber and Lucile Maertens, Editors
University of Michigan Press, 2023

Scholars have studied international organizations (IOs) in many disciplines, thus generating important theoretical developments. Yet a proper assessment and a broad discussion of the methods used to research these organizations are lacking. Which methods are being used to study IOs and in what ways? Do we need a specific methodology applied to the case of IOs? What are the concrete methodological challenges when doing research on IOs? International Organizations and Research Methods: An Introduction compiles an inventory of the methods developed in the study of IOs under the five headings of Observing, Interviewing, Documenting, Measuring, and Combining. It does not reconcile diverging views on the purpose and meaning of IO scholarship, but creates a space for scholars and students embedded in different academic traditions to reflect on methodological choices and the way they impact knowledge production on IOs.

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front cover of Race, Rhetoric, and Research Methods
Race, Rhetoric, and Research Methods
Alexandria Lockett
University Press of Colorado, 2021
Race, Rhetoric, and Research Methods explores multiple antiracist, decolonial forms of study that are relevant to 21st-century knowledge production about language, communication, technology, and culture. The book presents a rare collaboration among scholars representing different racial and ethnic backgrounds, genders, and ranks within the field of Rhetoric, Composition, and Writing Studies (RCWS). In each chapter, the authors examine the significance of their individual experiences with race and racism across contexts. Their research engages the politics of embodiment, institutional critique, multimodal rhetoric, materiality, and public digital literacies. The book merges impassioned storytelling with unflinching analysis, offering a multi-voiced argument that spotlights the field's troubled history with theorizing about race and epistemology. Although the authors directly address aspiring and current RCWS professionals, they model how a comprehensive consideration of race adds legitimacy and integrity to any subject of study. This co-authored work charts uncommon paths forward, demonstrating reflexive engagement with legacies that are personal and transnational, as well as with technologies that are both dehumanizing and liberating.
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Researching Writing
An Introduction to Research Methods
Joyce Kinkead
Utah State University Press, 2016
Researching Writing is an accessible, informative textbook that teaches undergraduates how to conduct ethical, authentic research in writing studies. The book introduces students to the research approaches used most often and offers a course framework for professors creating or teaching research courses themselves.
 
Author Joyce Kinkead lays out the research process, including finding and defining questions, planning, and starting the research. Expository content introduces the language and methods of writing research, and specific methods are demonstrated in published examples, illustrating student work using student work and showing that it is possible for students to join the scholarly conversation in writing studies. Other features include student activities, instructor resources, student resources, and links to external content on journal websites, digital publications, YouTube, and similar work.
 
The first-ever textbook for research methods in writing studies for undergraduates, Researching Writing takes a hands-on approach that excites and engages students in the depth and complexities of research and will influence the creation of courses in new writing majors as the field continues to grow.
 
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front cover of Thinking Like a Political Scientist
Thinking Like a Political Scientist
A Practical Guide to Research Methods
Christopher Howard
University of Chicago Press, 2017
Each year, tens of thousands of students who are interested in politics go through a rite of passage: they take a course in research methods. Many find the subject to be boring or confusing, and with good reason. Most of the standard books on research methods fail to highlight the most important concepts and questions. Instead, they brim with dry technical definitions and focus heavily on statistical analysis, slighting other valuable methods. This approach not only dulls potential enjoyment of the course, but prevents students from mastering the skills they need to engage more directly and meaningfully with a wide variety of research.
           
With wit and practical wisdom, Christopher Howard draws on more than a decade of experience teaching research methods to transform a typically dreary subject and teach budding political scientists the critical skills they need to read published research more effectively and produce better research of their own. The first part of the book is devoted to asking three fundamental questions in political science: What happened? Why? Who cares? In the second section, Howard demonstrates how to answer these questions by choosing an appropriate research design, selecting cases, and working with numbers and written documents as evidence. Drawing on examples from American and comparative politics, international relations, and public policy, Thinking Like a Political Scientist highlights the most common challenges that political scientists routinely face, and each chapter concludes with exercises so that students can practice dealing with those challenges.
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