Peqod :: Classes - Columbia University Catalog of Classes

We have to remember that what we observe is not nature herself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.

- Werner Heisenberg, Physicist

As Heisenberg reminds us, science does not grant unmediated access to reality, but rather, to reality as shaped by our methods of questioning. In psychology, quantitative experiments powerfully allow us to ask particular kinds of questions with precision and control, but they can sometimes bracket out the complexities of lived worlds, reducing what is messy and ambiguous into variables that may miss or even mischaracterize the very phenomena we wish to understand. Qualitative methods open up different vantage points, enabling us to explore meaning, context, and experience in ways numbers alone cannot capture.

This class takes seriously the idea that all methods both reveal and conceal, and that our task as researchers is to choose, and sometimes combine, approaches that best illuminate the questions we seek to answer. We will begin by considering the ontological and epistemological assumptions underlying different research methodologies—that is, assumptions about the nature of reality and how it can be studied. Next, we will learn and practice a range of qualitative approaches used by psychologists including thematic analysis, grounded theory, phenomenological analysis, portraiture, discourse analysis, narrative psychological methods, case studies, and non-linguistic methods. Attention will be given to evaluating what counts as “good” qualitative research, including the benefits of using mixed methods and pluralistic approaches (i.e., combining multiple methods). Throughout the semester, we will look at published examples of qualitative research in a variety of subdisciplines of psychology as well as in how these methods can be used in action research (i.e., in application to real-world problems).

The centerpoint of the course will be an independent project, devised around student research interests, through which students will gain hands-on experience in participatory inquiry, developing not only methodological skill but also a critical perspective on how knowledge is produced. The course is designed both for students who wish to conduct basic or applied qualitative research

Department: Psychology
M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
Instructor: Nora Isacoff
CULPA: 1 Info
4 points

Details

PSYC GU4940

PLATE TECTONICS AND CLIMATE

Department: Earth and Environmental Sciences
TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
Instructor: W R Buck
CULPA: 1 h-index: 43 Info
3 points

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EESC GU4947

Chemical Engineering of Wine Making

Chem Eng Wine Making

Department: Chemical Engineering
R 2:40 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
Instructor: Robert G Bozic
Info
3 points

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CHEN E4949

ECONOMICS & PHILOSOPHY

Department: Philosophy
M 10:10 a.m.-noon
Instructor: Daniel Hausman
Info
4 points

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ECPH GU4950

Beginner Medical Spanish

BEGINNER MEDICAL SPANISH

Department: Nursing
T 6:30 p.m.-7:50 p.m.
Instructor: Ana I Esteban Gonzalez
Info
1 points

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NURS N4950

Reality Television

Department: Film
R 10:10 a.m.-12:40 p.m.
Instructor: Racquel Gates
Info
3 points

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FILM GU4953

Reality Television Discussion

Department: Film
F 11:10 a.m.-noon
F 9:10 a.m.-10 a.m.
Instructor: Alberto M de la Rosa
Info
Instructor: Nicholas K Schoenbrodt
Info
0 points

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FILM GU4956

Global Medical Spanish

GLOBAL MEDICAL SPANISH

Department: Nursing
T 5 p.m.-6:20 p.m.
Instructor: Ana I Esteban Gonzalez
Info
1 points

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NURS N4961

PRISON LITERATURE

Prison literature—poems, plays, memoirs, novels, and songs written in prison or about prison—constitute a significant part of American literature. Prisons expose many of the systemic inequalities of American life, above all those based on racism and the enduring legacies of slavery. Using the tools of critical race theory, feminism, and class analysis, this course will explore the forms of cultural expression that have emerged in relationship to the American prison experience. Though the course will touch on the rise of convict leasing, chain gangs, and work farms as part of the penal system under Jim Crow, the main focus will be on developments in the U.S. prison system and in prison literature since the 1960s, roughly from the prison writing of George Jackson, Angela Davis, and Malcolm X to the outpouring of contemporary fiction and poetry about prison life by Jesmyn Ward, Colin Whitehead, Rachel Kushner, and Reginald Betts. This is the era of what Michelle Alexander has called “the new Jim Crow,” the rise of mass incarceration, the partial privatization of the penal system, and the growth of supermax facilities.

Among the questions we will explore together are these: What tools and techniques do writers use to construct the prison experience? What are the affordances offered by various genres (drama, autobiography, poetry, the novel) for exploring the prison system and the systems of oppression that converge at that site? Does some literature of incarceration perpetuate damaging discourses about “felons,” or does it revise and complicate stereotypes and narratives about incarcerated individuals? How do narratives involving change, conversion, growing up, or being defeated operate in various genres of prison literature? What role do mourning, witnessing, testifying, and resistance play in such writing? What is the imagined audience of various genres of prison writing, that is, for whom is it written? What ethical and political demands does such writing make on us as readers, citizens, activists?

Department: English and Comparative Literature
T 10:10 a.m.-noon
Instructor: Jean E Howard
CULPA: 12 Info
4 points

Details

ENGL GU4975