Aim of the course:
The aim of the course is to familiarise students with the characteristics of texts and documents in various disciplines of social sciences and to introduce them with an array of methodological approaches commonly used in their analysis. At the end of the course students should be able to understand the characteristics of different types of documents used in social sciences, their production, distribution and dissemination processes and methodological choices for their analysis.

Course description:

This is a two-day course addressed to doctoral students in various fields of social sciences who are using documentary sources in their research. By documents, we refer in this course to "natural" documents produced in processes of social interaction. Thus, texts generated during the research process (e.g. interviews, questionnaires) are not discussed in this course. The course will cover the following areas of expertise: history, political sciences, printed mass media texts and documents created in the interaction between different participants.

A seminar will also be organised, providing 4-5 students with the opportunity to present and get comments on particular methodological aspects related to the use of documents in their own research. Those interested to present in the seminar will provide a 3-4 pages abstract of their research, with particular emphasis on methodological issues to be discussed in the seminar. Send abstract to oana.apostol at uta.fi.

A maximum number of 25 participants will be admitted to the course.

The course consists of five lectures and a seminar.

Lecture structure is the following (preliminary titles):

19.3.2012 (Pinni B 3076)

9:15 - 11:00     Introduction to documentary sources in social sciences research
    Lecturer: Researcher Oana Apostol
11:15 - 12:00     Parliamentary documents as data
    Lecturer: Professor Pertti Alasuutari

2.4.2012 (Pinni B 3076)

9:15 - 10:00     Archival documents, published sources, and interviews: a historian's view on research processes
    Lecturer: Senior researcher Benedikt Schoenborn
10:00 - 10:45     Texts in interaction
    Lecturer: Senior assistant Maarit Alasuutari
11:00 - 11:45    Processing and interpreting printed media texts
    Lecturer: Researcher Oana Apostol
11:45 - 12:30     Lunch
12:30 - 13:00    Student paper 1
13:30 - 14:00    Student paper 2
14:15 - 14:45    Student paper 3
14:45 - 15:15 Student paper 4
1 more paper also possible if needed

Students' evaluation: pass/fail. Active presence and an essay to be completed after the course ends = 2 ECTS. Presenting their work at the seminar + 1 ECTS.

Contact person: oana.apostol at uta.fi