Qualitative Interviews

Qualitative interviews course provides knowledge, understanding and skills for interviewing as one of the most popular research methods in political and social research. The course teaches you how to design, conduct, generate and analyse data, and develop reflexivity and ethical sensibility in interview research.  

On the first day, the course introduces theoretical reflections, philosophical assumptions, methodological underpinnings, and ethical and legal issues involved in interview research. Field preparation strategies and techniques, including participant selection, gaining access, designing an interview guide and ethics documents, framing questions, and thinking through strategies of enquiry are discussed. We outline the stages of the interview process and explore techniques for navigating interviewer-interviewee relationships, power dynamics, positionality, sociodemographics, culture, technology,  and other factors of influence on data generation.  

The second day focuses on putting this knowledge into practice through designing and conducting interviews with peers and theorising and reflecting on interview experience. We outline different approaches to data management and analysis. We conclude the course with critical reflection on strengths, limitations and quality criteria in interview research.  

Dates 

The course will take place online on 11-12 June 2025, from 10:00 - 16:00 (both days).

About the lecturer 

Dr Alenka Jelen is Associate Professor and Head of Division of Communications, Media and Culture at the University of Stirling, UK. Her research specialism is in communication studies with a focus on gender in media and public relations, political communication, health communication and qualitative research methods, particularly interviews. She is the Editor of the leading critical public relations journal Public Relations Inquiry.  

She has expertise and extensive international experience in qualitative interview research and teaching. She has been delivering qualitative interview courses and trainings at several prestigious doctoral schools, universities and institutions since 2008, including MethodsNET Summer Schools in Social Research Methods, European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), German Development Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Concordia University and University of Brno. In 2018, she won the ECPR Cora Maas Award for the best-evaluated course at the ECPR Summer Methods School.