2010 Annual Meeting For additional program information contact: Academic and Professional Affairs
Didactic Seminars
Email: APAP@asanet.org
Phone: 202-383-9005 xt 318
Didactic Seminars are designed to keep sociologists abreast of recent scholarly trends and developments. Experts considered to be at the forefront of a given field are invited by the Program Committee to conduct these intensive sessions. Seminar fees are non-refundable after July 14. However, if the required enrollment was not reached by the time of preregistration closed and the seminar was cancelled, all fees will be fully refunded. Reservations for seminars are accepted in order of receipt. Those who did not preregister may check for possible openings at the ASA On-Site Registration.
2010 Didactic Seminar Roster
Seminar 01. Didactic Seminar. Quantitative Narrative Analysis and PC-ACE Sat, Aug 14 - 9:00am - 12:00pm Atlanta Marriott Marquis Fee: $35 Leader: Roberto P. Franzosi, Emory University |
Seminar Description: Not available at this time. *You must also register for the Annual Meeting to attend this course.
Registration Closes July 14 |
Seminar 02. Small-N Compass: Systematic Cross-Case Analysis Sat, Aug 14 - 2:30pm - 4:10pm Atlanta Marriott Marquis Fee: $35 Leader: Charles C. Ragin, University of Arizona
|
Seminar Description: The analytic challenge of case-oriented research is not simply that the number of cases is small, but that researchers gain useful in-depth knowledge of cases that is difficult to represent using conventional forms (e.g., representations that emphasize the “net effects” of “independent variables”). The researcher is left wondering how to represent knowledge of cases in a way that is meaningful and compact, but which also does not deny case complexity. Set-theoretic methods such as Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), the central focus of this seminar, offer a solution. QCA is fundamentally a case-oriented method that can be applied to small-to-moderate size Ns. It is most useful when researchers have knowledge of each case included in an investigation, there is a relatively small number of such cases (e.g., 10-50), and the investigator seeks to compare cases as configurations. With these methods it is possible to construct representations of cross-case patterns that allow for substantial heterogeneity and diversity. This seminar offers an advanced introduction to the approach and to the use of the software package fsQCA. Both the crisp (i.e., Boolean) and fuzzy-set versions of the method will be presented.Fuzzy set analysis is gaining popularity in the social sciences today because of the close connections it enables between verbal theory, substantive knowledge (especially in the assessment of set membership), and data analysis. Fuzzy sets are especially useful in case-oriented research, where the investigator has a degree of familiarity with the cases included in the investigation and seeks to understand cases configurationally--as specific combinations of aspects or elements. Using fuzzy-set methods, case outcomes can be examined in ways that allow for causal complexity, where different combinations of causally relevant conditions combine to generate the outcome in question. Also, with fuzzy-set methods it is a possible to evaluate arguments that causal conditions are necessary or sufficient. Examinations of this type are outside the scope of conventional analytical methods. *You must also register for the Annual Meeting to attend this course.
Registration Closes July 14 |
Seminar 03. Neurosociology and the Social Nature of the Brain Mon, Aug 16 - 10:30am - 12:10pm Atlanta Marriott Marquis Fee: $35 Leaders: David D. Franks, Virginia Commonwealth University; Jeff Davis, California State University-Long Beach |
Seminar Description: Since the last half of the 1990s, which Congress officially labeled “the Decade of the Brain”, the ASA and its officers have supported special and regular sessions in neuroscience at our annual meetings. From the beginning, these sessions have been very well attended. In 1999 Dr. Franks and Thomas Smith edited the first collection of essays by sociologists dealing with neurosociological issues titled Mind, Brain and Society: Toward a Neurosociology of Emotion. One reviewer of this volume said that all sociologists should read it, but that he feared very few would because of the wall between biology and sociology. In a relatively short time, it has become evident that this bias has significantly dissipated, and more and more articles and chapters dealing with neuroscience are being accepted in sociological journals and books. Much of this acceptance has been because of the support for neuroscience by our leading theorists who have been invited to start off the seminar. This seminar should aid in demonstrating the relevance of the brain to our social natures and to maintaining sociology’s growing interest and necessary progress in this area. *You must also register for the Annual Meeting to attend this course.
Registration Closes July 14
|
Seminar 04. Emergent Technologies for Qualitative Research Mon, Aug 16 - 2:30pm - 5:30pm Atlanta Marriott Marquis Fee: $35 Leader: Sharlene J. Hesse-Biber, Boston College |
Seminar Description: Emergent technologies have pushed against the boundaries of qualitative research practice. This didactic seminar will explore issues regarding how qualitative researchers can effectively apply new technological innovations, including the use of the internet, mobile phone technologies, geospatial technologies, and the incorporation of computer-assisted software programs, to collect and analyze both qualitative and mixed-methods dataThis seminar will: *You must also register for the Annual Meeting to attend this course.
Registration Closes July 14 |