Quantitative Empirical Research Training, Qualitative Empirical Research Training — AALS — New Orleans, LA

The AALS Committee on Research will present two workshops at the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans, one on quantitative empirical research and one on qualitative empirical research.

Both workshops are scheduled for Friday, January 4, 2013 from 2:00 -5:00 p.m. and will continue on Saturday, January 5, 2013 from 9:00 a.m. – 5:15 p.m. There is an additional registration fee of $100 for each workshop which includes a box lunch on Saturday. Advance registration is required and homework will be assigned.

Registration – You may register online at www.aals.org/am2013/ if you are listed in the AALS Directory of Law Teachers. If you are not in the Directory you may fax or mail the registration form found at www.aals.org/am2013. The early bird registration deadline date is November 14.

Annual Meeting Registration Fees:

Faculty and Employees of AALS Member and Fee-Paid Law Schools:

$425 if received by November 14
$475 if received after November 14
Plus $100 for attendance at a Committee on Research Workshop

Quantitative Empirical Training Workshop
Friday, January 4, 2013 from 2:00 – 5:00 PM
Saturday, January 5, from 9:00 AM – 5:15 PM

Moderator and Speaker: Theodore Eisenberg, Cornell Law School

In this seminar, Professor Eisenberg will guide participants through an intensive ten hour course on statistical analysis in the legal context. The participants will follow Professor Eisenberg’s lead on their own laptops and with their own Stata software in coding and analyzing data sets.

Participants may wish to purchase Stata version 12 through their universities at the discounted academic price. See http://www.stata.com/order/new/edu/gradplans/.

Any version of Stata other than Small Stata will work for this workshop. Participants who do not wish to purchase a longer term license for Stata may use a free version of Stata that will expire at the end of the workshop. Information on downloading and passwords for the free version will be distributed shortly before the workshop.

Reading assignments will be from Alan C. Acock, A GENTLE INTRODUCTION TO STATA (Revised Third Edition 2012), which is available from the Stata bookstore online.

Register for this Workshop using session code 4080 during the registration process.

 

Qualitative Empirical Research Workshop
Friday, January 4, 2013 from 2:00 – 5:00 PM
Saturday, January 5, from 9:00 AM – 5:15 PM

Speakers:

Michael W. McCann, Professor of Political Science, University of Washington,

Seattle, Washington

Elizabeth E. Mertz, University of Wisconsin Law School

Kim Lane Scheppele, University of Pennsylvania Law School

This session provides an overview of qualitative research approaches. No social science background is required. The session has two goals: 1.) To provide information for law professors interested in drawing on qualitative social science studies that are pertinent to their research on law; and 2.) To support law professors who seek to augment their legal research by using interviews, observation, and/or language analysis.

This is a pilot program. If there is sufficient interest, we will explore ways of providing continuing support for interested law faculty.

The Workshop is divided into three sessions: first, a discussion of interview and observational methods, and of combining qualitative and quantitative ways of looking at law (4 hours); second, a discussion of linguistic methods for analyzing legal language (4 hours); and finally, an interactive session in which workshop participants can receive feedback on specific questions and project ideas (2 hours). Participants are not required to have any specific equipment or preparation; of course they may bring laptops for purposes of taking notes.

I. Interview and Field Studies; Combining Methods

This session will review basic methodological issues in interview and ethnographic research.

Topics:

A. Within Case and Small-N Comparisons

B. The Interpretive Approach to Qualitative Research

C. Case Studies

D. Use of Software to Analyze Interview Material

E. Issues in Data Selection and Presentation from Qualitative Research

F. Multi-Methods – Qualitative Meets Quantitative

II. Social Science Methods for Language Analysis

This session provides an overview of a variety of social science approaches to language and discourse analysis, along with hands-on practice using linguistic techniques for analyzing legal language.

Topics:

A. Index and Symbol: Grounding Language Analysis in Culture and Society

B. Sociolinguistic Analysis

C. Linguistic Anthropological Analysis

D. Social Science Studies of Legal Language

E. Textual Analysis

III. Workshop Q and A: At the conclusion of the workshop, we plan an interactive session where participants can ask questions based on their own research agendas.

Register for this Workshop using session code 4090 during the registration process.

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