Archives as Art and Science
In addition to my substantive interests, I am deeply committed to exploring and improving the use of archival evidence for IR topics. Interestingly, although archives contain a wealth of data suitable for both quantitative and qualitative analytic techniques, archival data collection is only infrequently discussed in political science training programs; those that do, meanwhile, primarily treat it as a form of qualitative evidence. Meanwhile, even less attention has been give to the inferential challenges and opportunities inherent in archival work of all sorts. This situation is all the more puzzling given the growing number of IR studies which employ archival evidence (qualitatively or quantitively) - there is a gap between how archives are taught and what scholars are doing.
I am tackling this issue in a series of articles and monographs. In both a short essay and a forthcoming edited volume chapter, I lay out the core logic of archival research for IR topics - why researchers may want to go to an archive, archival data collection, potential biases in archival evidence, and so on. Building on this foundation, I am also composing a book that details the art and science of archival research. Paying particular attention to concept development and the need to interact deduction and induction in an archival space, the project also offers practical guidance (e.g., how to identify archives, organize documents, gain entry to an archive, etc.) for scholars executing archival research trips. Stay tuned for more information!
I am tackling this issue in a series of articles and monographs. In both a short essay and a forthcoming edited volume chapter, I lay out the core logic of archival research for IR topics - why researchers may want to go to an archive, archival data collection, potential biases in archival evidence, and so on. Building on this foundation, I am also composing a book that details the art and science of archival research. Paying particular attention to concept development and the need to interact deduction and induction in an archival space, the project also offers practical guidance (e.g., how to identify archives, organize documents, gain entry to an archive, etc.) for scholars executing archival research trips. Stay tuned for more information!
