Dr Anna Getmansky

Dr Martin Bayly

This course is compulsory on the MPhil/PhD in International Relations. This course is not available as an outside option to students on other programmes.

The main objective of this course is to offer students an introduction to and route map through the principal approaches to contemporary research in the main branches of International Relations and to help students identify the appropriate methods for their own thesis. The course will investigate the relationship between theory and method in the conduct of research. It will encourage students to think about the trade- offs and tensions involved in choosing specific methods and research designs. Our aim is to facilitate student learning so that each research student can comprehend, critically interrogate and engage with scholarship employing diverse methodological toolkits.  The end result aimed for is well-rounded and professional academics that are familiar and hence intellectually at ease with the plurality of methodological and theoretical approaches available to those conducting cutting edge research in International Relations.

The course therefore aims to expose students to, and generate awareness of, a variety of research methods in the discipline irrespective of the particular approach students employ in their doctoral work, and at the same time help them develop a detailed research plan for their own research. The course will aim to promote an environment of mutual support and encouragement amongst first year research students, maximising the potential for cross fertilization between different projects. The course will also develop students’ presentational skills in a group setting.

14 hours of seminars and 9 hours of workshops in the Autumn Term.
14 hours of seminars and 9 hours of workshops in the Winter Term.

Students will be expected to draft and present sections of their research plan in the Autumn Term and to prepare and present a full research plan at the end of the Winter Term.

1. Scott Ashworth, Christopher Berry, and Ethan Bueno de Mesquita. 2021. Theory and Credibility: Integrating Theoretical and Empirical Social Science. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
2. Ethan Bueno de Mesquita and Anthony Fowler. 2021. Thinking Clearly with Data: A Guide to Quantitative Reasoning and Analysis. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
3. Alexander George and Andrew Bennett. 2005. Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
4. John Gerring and Lee Cojocaru. 2016. "Selecting Cases for Intensive Analysis: A Diversity of Goals and Methods." Sociological Methods & Research 45(3): 392–423.
5. Gary King, Robert Keohane, and Sidney Verba. 2021. Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research, New Edition. 2nd edition. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University.
6. Calerco, Jessica McCrory. 2020. The Field Guide to Grad School; Uncovering the Hidden Curriculm. Princeton University Press.
7. Kapiscewski, Diana, Lauren MacLean, and Benjamin Read. 2015. Field Research in Political Science: Practices and Principles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8. Yanow, Dvora, and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea (eds.). 2014. Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Methods and the Interpretive Turn, 2nd edition. New York: M E Sharpe.
9. Aradau, C., & Huysmans, J. (2014). Critical methods in International Relations: The politics of techniques, devices and acts. European Journal of International Relations, 20(3), 596-619.

This course is not assessed. However, attendance of Research Cluster Workshop is compulsory and will be monitored: at least 80% attendance is expected.