ENV 551a () / 2025-2026

Research Methods for Qualitative Inquiry

Credits: 3 Fall 2025: Tu,Th, 10:30-11:50, Kroon 321

This course will cover approaches to designing and implementing qualitative research with a focus on understanding complex questions that lie at the nexus of people and the environment. Qualitative research is critical to understand the interconnected patterns and processes in the social world that cannot be reduced to quantitate data or mechanistic explanations. The methods covered in this course include interview techniques; document analysis of texts and social artifacts such as maps, images, public documents and archival material; ethnographic techniques such as observation and writing thick description; and participatory action tools that support community-based approaches to research. The strategies of inquiry of qualitative research we will learn about include ethnography, oral history, participatory action research, and case study research. Finally, we will probe the practice of social science research by engaging in a range of ethical and practical decisions that a researcher will encounter when examining the nature of the human condition.