A community for qualitative researchers.
QuIRI brings together researchers from across Cornell who teach, employ, and develop rigorous qualitative research methodologies. The qualitative and interpretive social science faculty at Cornell University is among the very best in the world. QuIRI creates opportunities for collaboration and excellence in interpretive social science research and training.
Cornell University’s QuIRI was established in 2020 to:
- Enhance the support for qualitative and interpretive social scientists at Cornell
- Increase the coordination and collaboration among Cornell faculty who teach, employ, and develop qualitative research methods
- Increase the visibility and awareness of qualitative methodological opportunities among the social sciences at Cornell
- Enhance the social science qualitative research methods training at Cornell
- Identify collaboration opportunities for qualitative researchers in other disciplines
- Enhance the external visibility of the strong qualitative research community at Cornell
QuIRI has several programs and initiatives to support qualitative research at Cornell. We have a monthly seminar series that explores methods, technologies, and research projects related to various kinds of qualitative research. We have a bi-annual small grants program for Cornell faculty, post-docs, and Ph.D. students to support multiple types of research-related expenses. Our faculty working groups provide resources to bring together qualitative researchers for writing and or reading groups. Our faculty summer institute is intended for faculty across Cornell interested in incorporating qualitative methods into their research programs. See the tabs above for more details.
To join the QuIRI e-list please send an email message with the subject line JOIN to QuIRI-L-request@cornell.edu
Previous Featured Researchers
Gili Vidan, Assistant Professor, Information Science, Bowers College of Computing and Information Science
Favorite qualitative methods book or article is “Something She Called a Fever: Michelet, Derrida, and Dust” by Carolyn Steedman.
Laura Tach, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Sociology, Brooks School of Public Policy
Favorite book or article is "Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities" by Eve Tuck.
Katherine Sender, Professor, Communication, CALS
Favorite qualitative methods book or article is Bird, E. S. (2003). Chapter 4: Imagining Indians: Negotiating identity in a media world. In The audience in everyday life: Living in a media world (pp. 86-117). New York: Routledge.
Natasha Raheja, Assistant Professor, Anthropology
Favorite qualitative methods book or article is Cerwonka, A. and Malkki, L.H., 2008. Improvising Theory. University of Chicago Press.
Linda Shi, Assistant Professor, City and Regional Planning
Favorite qualitative methods book or article is Mukhija, V. (2010). N of One plus Some: An Alternative Strategy for Conducting Single Case Research. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 29(4), 416–426. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X10362770
Alexandra Blackman, Assistant Professor, Government
Favorite qualitative methods book or article is: Democracy in Translation: Understanding Politics in an Unfamiliar Culture (Frederic Charles Schaffer)
Erica Phillips, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine Weill Cornell Medical College
Favorite qualitative methods book or article is Basics of Qualitative Research: Second Edition: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory 2nd Edition by Anselm Strauss (Author) and Juliet Corbin (Author).
Amelia Greiner Safi, Senior Research Associate, Department of Communication
Favorite qualitative methods books and articles are from Michael Q. Patton’s work, like Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods.
Jenny Goldstein, Assistant Professor, Department of Global Development
Favorite qualitative methods book or article is currently a toss-up between Gibson-Graham, J.K. 2014. Rethinking the economy with thick description and weak theory. Current Anthropology 55(9):147-153 and Lave, R., Biermann, C., Lane, S.N. 2018. The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Physical Geography. London: Palgrave.
Tristan Ivory, Assistant Professor, Industrial and Labor Relations
In terms of a favorite qualitative methods article, I don’t think in terms of favorites most of the time. Still, I always appreciate work that revisits older methods or applies methods beyond the disciple/sub-field where they are most commonly employed.
Maureen Waller, Professor in the Department of Policy Analysis & Management and Sociology (by courtesy)
Favorite qualitative methods article is Mario Small’s “‘How Many Cases Do I Need?’ On Science and the Logic of Case Selection in Field-Based Research” published in Ethnography.
Sofia Villenas, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology
Favorite qualitative methods book or resource is Feminist Ethnography: Thinking through Methodologies, Challenges, and Possibilities, by Dana-Ain Davis and Christa Craven.
Beyond Metrics: Qualitative Approaches to Understanding Intervention Effectiveness
Wednesday, May 7, 2025 (3-4:30 pm)
Register here or Join via Zoom
David Scales
MD, PhD, hospitalist and sociologist at Weill Cornell Medicine
How do you know something works? Lived experience can provide insight into what types of complex interventions appear to be effective, but it can be challenging to understand the precise components or the "mechanism of action" of such effectiveness. Based on decades of research on motivational interviewing, a counseling style used to treat addiction (aka substance use disorder), I will discuss two case examples - one using ultrasound to maximize placebo-like effects in hospital settings and a process adapting motivational interviewing to counteract misinformation in online forums - to describe how qualitative data can inform intervention design, optimization, and evaluation. This workshop will appeal to qualitative and mixed-methods researchers interested in discussions about how best to use qualitative methods to define metrics that can help define efficacy in real-world settings. Some of the issues discussed will be collaboratively defining the goals of the intervention, considering process versus outcome aspects, and the role and integration of quantitative data in the process.
David Scales MD, PhD is a hospitalist and sociologist at Weill Cornell Medicine using qualitative methods to study medical communication in clinical and online settings, including understanding how structural factors affect our information environments to allow misinformation to propagate and misconceptions to persist.
Research design and codes of practice for maximizing the impact of energy and climate social science
Tuesday, April 15, 2025 (12-1:30 pm)
Benjamin Sovacool
Professor in the Department of Earth & Environment at Boston University
Researchers in the qualitative social sciences today need to secure funding, collaborate, share data, publish results, and demonstrate impact. Early career scholars in particular are faced with multiple pressures around these challenges. This presentation will help scholars, especially early career researchers, gain an understanding of how to design their research more effectively, and how to improve their chances to get your work published. Using examples from the energy and climate social sciences field, it will bring attention to the importance of clearly articulating research questions, objectives, and designs. It will provide a framework for conceptualizing novelty. It will suggest codes of practice to improve the quality and rigor of research. It will provide guidelines for improving the style and communication of results. It will lastly discuss what academic (and non-academic) impact are and propose ways to enhance it. In doing so, the presentation gives first-hand insights into successful qualitative research methodologies, what journal editors (and reviewers) look for, as well as advice on how to successfully promote your work.
Benjamin K. Sovacool is Professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University in the United States, where he is the Founding Director of the Institute for Global Sustainability. Professor Sovacool works as a researcher and consultant on issues pertaining to energy policy, energy justice, energy security, climate change mitigation, and climate change adaptation. More specifically, his research focuses on renewable energy and energy efficiency, the politics of large-scale energy infrastructure, the ethics and morality of energy decisions, designing public policy to improve energy security and access to electricity, and building adaptive capacity to the consequences of climate change. With much coverage of his work in the international news media, he is one of the most highly cited global researchers on issues bearing on controversies in energy policy and climate change.
Mixed methods research: integrating qualitative and quantitative methods
March 6, 2025 (4:30-6 pm)
Ida Djenontin
Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Penn State University
Employing a mixed-method research approach, often through collaborative efforts, helps to harness the analytical power of diverse data-collection methods, sources, and analyses to cross-examine specific research questions. This is crucial for generating robust and nuanced evidence to inform effective, science-based environment-development policies that address socioecological sustainability issues. Such issues require a comprehensive understanding of socio-cultural, institutional, political, economic, and ecological dimensions. This is best achieved through empirical and integrated research methods that consider contextual factors, including the distribution of power among diverse social actors, as well as the dynamics across spatial and temporal scales that mediate processes and outcomes.
This workshop will provide a platform for a two-way knowledge exchange on mixed-methods research, focusing on the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods and addressing related challenges. Drawing from my academic training and field-based research experiences, including impact evaluation studies in non-academic settings, I will use examples of my work to illustrate some ways in which I employ a transdisciplinary research approach for socioecological sustainability research and practice. This includes a combination of various participatory methods, such as stakeholder engagement and role-playing games, alongside qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis tools.
Through engaged discussions, participants will share their insights, experiences, and challenges in conducting mixed-methods research. This collaborative environment aims to mutually enhance knowledge for embracing mixed-method research approach.
Ida Djenontin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Penn State University, USA. She is a human-environment and development geographer, with a broad interdisciplinary training in environmental social science.
Ida integrates social and natural science perspectives in her trans/interdisciplinary, policy-oriented research that centers on the human dimensions of global environmental changes affecting the sustainability of forest and tree-based socio-ecosystems. She leverages mixed qualitative and quantitative research methods in a spatially explicit way to examine land-use change governance questions relevant to forest/tree-people relationships.
Ida was previously a Visiting Fellow and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment of the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK). Ida holds a dual PhD in Geography (Nature-Society Studies) and in Environmental Science & Policy from Michigan State University (US); a Master’s in Development Practice from the University of Arizona (US); and MA and BSc in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Parakou (Benin).
To Collaborate or Not Isn't the Question: Who do you care to collaborate with?
November 7, 2024 (3:30-5 pm)
Peter Little
Professor and Chair of Anthropology at Rhode Island College and President of the Northeastern Anthropological Association
In this workshop, Peter will explore the promises and pitfalls of collaboration in his anthropological research on the health and environmental politics of the global tech industry. He will share examples of research collaborations in Ghana and the U.S., with the goal of using these examples to think collectively about a simple two-headed question: Who do we care to collaborate with? How does that caring matter to social science praxis? Throughout this workshop, we will explore these questions to help us think and re-think the place and power of collaboration in shaping and imaging intersectional social science.
Peter Little is Professor and Chair of Anthropology at Rhode Island College and President of the Northeastern Anthropological Association. From his experiences as an intern at the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and contract anthropologist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to his current academic position, his career has been informed by an enduring interest in the health-environment-tech nexus. He is author of Toxic Town: IBM, Pollution, and Industrial Risks (NYU, 2014), Burning Matters: Life, Labor, and E-Waste Pyropolitics in Ghana (Oxford, 2022), and Critical Zones of Technopower and Global Political Ecology: Platforms, Pathologies, and Plunder (Lexington Books, 2023).
Feminist Mapping and Icon Design
October 4, 2024 (12:30-2 pm)
Meghan Kelly
In this workshop, Meghan will introduce a feminist mapping framework that can be applied to spatial data, map design, and mapping workflows. She will illustrate seven feminist principles within this framework through a series of examples. We will then collectively explore the feminist mapping framework using hands-on sketch mapping techniques. More specifically, we will iteratively redesign map icons using the feminist principles as inspiration. Throughout this workshop, we will uncover the possibilities for applying feminist mapping to map icons and your own research and interests.
Meghan Kelly is an assistant professor in Geography and mapmaker at Syracuse University with prior appointments at Dartmouth College and Durham University (UK). Broadly, her research explores the theory and practice of feminist mapping. As a researcher and practicing cartographer, Meghan has applied this frame to questions of borders and migration, policing, housing and evictions, public health, and climate change.
Previous Seminars
Sista Circle Methodology as Method and Intervention
March 25, 2024
Jaleesa Reed & Jocelyn Poe
Applied Ethnography for Community Health Assessment: A Case Study on School Foods
March 1, 2024
Elizabeth Fox, 2023 Trevor Pinch Award Winner
QuIRI Student Panel!
February 1, 2024
Joseph Lasky, Ph.D. Candidate, Government/ Emily Hillenbrand, Ph.D. Candidate, Global Development/ Sang-O Kim, Ph.D. Candidate, City & Regional Planning
From Chinatown to Every Town: How Chinese Immigrants Have Expanded Restaurant Business in the United States.
November 16, 2024
Dr. Zai Liang, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology in the Department of East Asian Studies at SUNY-Albany
Getting Your Findings Out to Non-Academic Audiences
October 27, 2023
Karl Pillemer, Hazel E. Reed Professor in the Department of Psychology and Professor of Gerontology in Medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College
A Matter of Interpretation: The Letter of the Law and Complainants’ Lived Experiences of Discrimination under Title IX
September 7, 2023
Vida Maralani, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Insight-Out: Political Phenomenology and the Trials of Liberal Democracy
May 5, 2023
Uriel Abulof, Visiting Associate Professor, Israel Institute, Department of Government
Working Group Panel
April 13, 2023
Leila Wilmers, Sociology and Gili Vidan, Information Science
View the presentation here.
On Interviewing
March 24, 2023
Lee Humphreys, Communication; Linda Shi, City and Regional Planning; and Sharon Sassler, Brooks School of Public Policy.
View the presentation here.
Rocking Qualitative Social Science
February 3, 2023
Ashley Rubin, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of Hawaii
View the presentation here.
On Writing
November 4, 2022
Katherine Sender, Communication and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program
View the presentation here.
Writing resources from the presentation can be found here.
Immigrant Worker Precarity
December 2, 2022
Shannon Gleeson, ILR
View the presentation here.
Her new book is Scaling Migrant Work Rights.
Her newest project explores Temporary Immigration Status, Race, and Workplace Precarity.
Social Inquiry and Bayesian Inference: Rethinking Qualitative Research
Co-sponsored by QuIRI
November 10, 2022
Tasha Fairfield, Department of International Development at the London School of Economics
Big Data Meets Thick Description: Thinking Interpretively with Computational Data
1-2pm, October 7, 2022
Chelsea Butkowski, Ph.D. '22, Communication, and Ph.D. Student Aspen Russell, Information Science
View the presentation here.
2022 Trevor Pinch QuIRI Innovation Awardee Presentation
September 16, 2022
Gilly Leshed, Information Science
View the presentation here.
In-person Reception
May 13, 2022
Learn more about QuIRI, celebrate the work of fellow qualitative researchers from across campus, and discuss possible collaboration opportunities in person!
Graduate Researchers Panel
April 1, 2022
Negar Khojatest, Information Science; Kendra Kintzi, Development Sociology; Yoselinda Mendoza, Sociology; Elif Sari, Anthropology; Gloria Xiong, Government; & Daniel Ferman-Leon, Anthropology.
This seminar showcases graduate student researchers across the university who have received support from QuIRI.
Collaboration in Qualitative Research
Mar 11, 2022
Amelia Greiner-Safi, Associate Professor of Practice, Public Health, Cornell Vet; Sharon Sassler, Professor, Brooks School of Public Policy; Eli Friedman, Associate Professor & Chair Department of International and Comparative Labor, ILR; and Diane Bailey, Professor, Dept of Communication
View the presentation here.
Photovoice
Feb 4, 2022
Katie Foriella, Assistant Professor, Public Health, Cornell Vet, and Elizabeth Fox, Assistant Professor of Practice, Public Health, Cornell Vet.
View the presentation here.
Integrating Qualitative Social Science and Storytelling for Global Impact
December 10, 2021
Cornell Alum Raul Roman, Ph.D. ’04, Founder & Executive Director, Dawning.org
View the presentation here.
Participatory Action Research Panel
November 12, 2021
Richard Keily, Office of Engagement Initiatives at Cornell; Karen Purcell, Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology; Rana Zadeh, Dept of Design & Environmental Analysis at Cornell; Bobby Wilson, Metro Atlanta Urban Farm; Makeda Cheatom, WorldBeat Cultural Center; and Phyllis E. Turner, Community Science Collaborator, Metro Atlanta Urban Farm.
-- Noise Project: https://noiseproject.org
-- Noise Project working agreements: https://power30icbos.blogspot.com/2019/05/our-icbo-working-agreements.html
-- Non-negotiables for doing research and evaluation in our communities (Community Review board of Non-negotiables):
https://power30icbos.blogspot.com/2019/08/download-our-icbo-community-review.html
-- Meaningful collaborations (a workbook for Community-based Organizations): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xxyUdiE1vqnH2_pQeYCRfHwGOyFzECxb/view
-- Partnerships for Impact (a workbook for STEM Institutions): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1siAvFwP4ddDy3SmVuxTVgWj7WSZvRRCE/view
-- View the presentation here.
QuIRI Networking Event / Working Group Mixer
October 1, 2021
Meet the QuIRI leadership team and fellow QuIRI affiliates for an informal networking event. If you are interested in becoming a member of a QuIRI Working Group, this event is for you!
2021 QuIRI Innovation Award: Digital Due Process Clinic
September 10, 2021
Malte Ziewitz, Assistant Professor, STS
View the presentation.
2021 CCSS QuIRI Working Groups Panel
May 14, 2021
View the presentation.
Focus Groups and Best Practices
April 23, 2021
View this presentation and view materials from this presentation.
Software for Qualitative Research
February 22, 2021
Florio Arguillas and Lynda Kellam from CCSS present various helpful software for qualitative research. They discuss tools for collecting qualitative data through recording and transcription software and note-taking software. They discuss tools for analyzing qualitative data and the key differences between software packages. Lastly, they describe software for writing up qualitative research. View this presentation.
Qualitative Data Repository Workshop: Sharing and Archiving your Qualitative Research
December 4, 2020
Lynda Kellam of CCSS, and Sebastian Karcher, of Syracuse University’s Qualitative Data Repository, discuss opportunities for archiving qualitative research. This workshop is intended for qualitative researchers at all stages of their careers who are interested in learning more about SU’s Qualitative Data Repository (QDR), of which Cornell is a member. The workshop explores opportunities for Cornell qualitative social scientists to engage in open science practices. View this presentation.
Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Transdisciplinary Research
October 23, 2020
Karim-Aly Kassam, Natural Resources and the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program
Digital Qualitative Methods During COVID
October 9, 2020
QuIRI Director Lee Humphreys introduces current QuIRI program initiatives and presents “Digital Qualitative Methods During COVID,” with ideas and strategies for different qualitative methods that utilize digital communication technologies.
Small Grants Program
Applications due Wednesday, March 12.
The CCSS QuIRI Small Grants Program is intended to provide up to $2,000.00 in funding for qualitative research expenses (such as participant compensation, travel for data collection, equipment, transcription software, research assistants etc.) to Cornell faculty, post-docs, & doctoral students in the social sciences. Priority will be given to projects that may lead to other funding or help move a project to completion and/or publication. Individual applicants will not be awarded more than once per project per year. Graduate students will be expected to participate in a panel in the following year to present their findings. Applicants are also expected to note which qualitative courses they have taken.
Doctoral students must be post A-exam to receive a grant. Grad students can apply pre-A exams, but the funds will not be transferred until after the A exams have been successfully completed.
Faculty who apply to this should not be dissuaded from applying to the CCSS Research, Conference, or Roper Center Grants. These smaller amounts of funding are different from other CCSS funding and are intended to help qualitative scholars in their research.
Your application should include your:
- Name
- Rank
- Department(s)/unit(s)
- Project title
- 500-word description of the project
- Budget
- Budget justification
- Relevant Qualitative Methods course
- QuIRI talk(s) attended
- 3-page CV
- For faculty: Account number for funds transfer, Financial Staff Representative’s name and email
- For students: Student ID
- If you are a graduate student, PhD letters of recommendation from committee chairs should be emailed directly to quiri@cornell.edu.
All materials should be compiled into a single pdf for submission.
Questions about the process can be sent to quiri@cornell.edu.
Faculty Working Groups
The QuIRI Faculty Working Groups Program is intended for faculty-led writing and/or reading groups of social science faculty who employ qualitative research methods.
Proposed working groups:
- Can be themed around specific methods, analytical approaches, or software and methods training.
- May also explore theoretical or empirical synergies.
- Should include four to five members per group, including the faculty leader, and ideally at least two members from different departments/units.
- May have doctoral students, although a faculty member must lead.
Each group member will receive up to $500, awarded individually or as a group, for research materials/equipment, participant compensation, software, or other group costs.
Before filling out your application, be sure to have:
- Your department's financial liaison information
- A list of all your participants, their positions, colleges, departments, and ID numbers if PhD students
- All participants' CVs
- A description of the goals or purpose of your working group
- A tentative meeting schedule for the calendar year
- A budget
- A budget justification
Applications open Fall 2024.
The Trevor Pinch QuIRI Innovation Award
To donate to this award: Click Here (Please specify that the gift is in memory of Trevor Pinch)
The death of Professor Trevor Pinch deeply saddened QuIRI in December 2021. He was a founding member of the QuIRI leadership team and a generous advocate and teacher of qualitative methods. He will be sorely missed. In honor of his creative spirit and out-of-the-box thinking, we are pleased to announce that the QuIRI Innovation Award is now called the Trevor Pinch QuIRI Innovation Award. QuIRI looks forward to continuing his legacy of teaching, developing, and promoting innovative, interpretive research across the social sciences.
About the Award
The Trevor Pinch QuIRI Innovation Award is given to a Cornell faculty member who demonstrates innovation in developing, using, or teaching qualitative methods.
The recipient will give the Trevor Pinch Innovation Award talk in Fall 2025 and will also receive a $500 honorarium.
To apply, please submit your CV and cover letter explaining the innovative collaboration, project, course, or workshop, along with the name and email of a colleague or supervisor who can provide a letter of support.
Applications are due by May 15, 2025, and should be sent via email to quiri@cornell.edu
2023 Award Winner
We are pleased to announce that the 2023 Trevor Pinch QuIRI Innovation Award has been awarded to Dr. Elizabeth Fox,
Assistant Professor of Practice, for her outstanding teaching of qualitative methods using innovative and engaged approaches to public health.
Previous Winners
- 2022: Dr. Gilly Leshed, Senior Lecturer in Information Science at Cornell
- 2021: Malte Ziewitz, Assistant Professor, Science and Technology Studies
Previous Small Grant Award Winners
Previous Working Group Award Winners
Jaleesa Reed, Assistant Professor, Human Centered Design, College of Human Ecology
Jaleesa Reed is in her first year as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design, following a two-year stint as an Assistant Research Professor at Cornell. Dr. Reed received her PhD in 2021 from the Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Interiors at the University of Georgia. Her research is interdisciplinary, focusing on connecting human geography, feminist studies, and merchandising in the fashion and beauty industries. Recent projects include an investigation of Black beauty supply stores in Syracuse and an exploration of beauty, femininity, and place-making in Los Angeles.
Fun fact about Jaleesa? She sits on the Board of Directors for the Costume Society
of America!
Did your research benefit from the Qualitative and Interpretive Research Institute (QuIRI)?
Please acknowledge QuIRI and CCSS with the following language when publicizing or presenting your research results: “This research was supported by the Qualitative and Interpretive Research Institute in the Cornell Center for Social Sciences.”