Theories, methods and research traditions - Philosophy 1500-TMITB-F
The classes will focus on philosophical, ethical, and methodological aspects of selected contemporary research approaches in the humanities in the 21st century. We will address actuality and transformations of the main traditions of the 20th century, and conduct in-depth analysis of selected contemporary theoretical and methodological approaches. The topics covered include: phenomenology, hermeneutics, psychoanalysis, critical theory, Marxism, structuralism, poststructuralism, feminist theory, queer theory, post- and decolonial theory, environmental humanities, indigenous humanities, community based research, participatory active research.
Type of course
Course coordinators
Assessment criteria
Activity, presentation, 2 absences are allowed
Bibliography
Reading list
(alphabetically; the list of readings is preliminary and indicative; it It can be modified depending on the issues raised in class and the results obtained)
Alatas, S. F. (2000). Academic dependency in the social sciences: Reflections on India and Malaysia. American Studies International, 38(2), 80–96.
Allen, A. (2016). The End of Progress: Decolonizing the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory. Columbia University Press. (chapter 1 and 6)
Altman, N. (2011). The analyst in the inner city: Race, class, and culture through a psychoanalytic lens. Routledge. (chapter 5 and 6)
Braidotti, R. (2019). A theoretical framework for the critical posthumanities. Theory, culture & society, 36(6), 31-61.
Boellstorff, T. (2016). Queer techne: Two theses on methodology and queer studies. In Queer methods and methodologies. C.J. Nash, E. Brown (eds.). (pp. 215-230). Routledge.
C.I. Macleod et al. (eds.), „The Palgrave Handbook of Ethics in Critical Research”, Palgrave Macmillan Cham 2018. (selected chapters)
Chakrabarty, D. (2021). The climate of history in a planetary age. In The Climate of History in a Planetary Age. University of Chicago Press. (chapters 1, 2, and 3).
Denzin, N. K., Lincoln, Y. S., & Smith, L. T. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies. Sage. (selected chapters)
Dussel, E. (2018). Anti-Cartesian Meditations and Transmodernity. From the Perspectives of Philosophy of Liberation. Amrit, Uitgeverij. (chapter 1)
Escobar, A. (2007). Worlds and Knowledges Otherwise: The Latin American Modernity/Coloniality Research Program. Cultural Studies, 21(2–3), 179–210.
Finlay, L. (2012). Debating phenomenological methods. In Hermeneutic phenomenology in education: Method and practice. N. Friesen, C. Henriksson, T. Sevie (eds.) (pp. 17-37). Rotterdam: SensePublishers.
Fox, N. J., & Alldred, P. (2015). Inside the research-assemblage: New materialism and the micropolitics of social inquiry. Sociological Research Online, 20(2), 122-140.
Fox, N. J., & Alldred, P. (2015). New materialist social inquiry: Designs, methods and the research-assemblage. International journal of social research methodology, 18(4), 399-414.
Lugones, M. (2010). Toward a decolonial feminism. Hypatia, 25(4), 742–759.
McCaffrey, G., Raffin-Bouchal, S., & Moules, N. J. (2012). Hermeneutics as research approach: A reappraisal. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 11(3), 214-229.
Mendoza, B., & Grijalva, D. P. (2022). The epistemology of the south, coloniality of gender, and Latin American Feminism. Hypatia, 37(3), 510–522.
Patterson, A., Kinloch, V., Burkhard, T., Randall, R., & Howard, A. (2016). Black feminist thought as methodology: Examining intergenerational lived experiences of Black women. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, 5(3), 55-76.
Radstone, S. (2007). Trauma theory: Contexts, politics, ethics. Paragraph, 30(1), 9-29.
Smythe, E., & Spence, D. (2012). Re-viewing literature in hermeneutic research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 11(1), 12-25.
Sohn, B. K., Thomas, S. P., Greenberg, K. H., & Pollio, H. R. (2017). Hearing the voices of students and teachers: A phenomenological approach to educational research. Qualitative Research in Education, 6(2), 121-148.
Strydom, P. (2011). Contemporary critical theory and methodology. Routledge.
Suddick, K. M., Cross, V., Vuoskoski, P., Galvin, K. T., & Stew, G. (2020). The work of hermeneutic phenomenology. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19, 1609406920947600.
Tlostanova, M. (2023). Decoloniality: Between a travelling concept and a relational onto-epistemic political stance. In Coloniality and decolonisation in the Nordic Region. Adrián Groglopo & Julia Suárez-Krabbe (eds.). (pp. 145–163). Routledge.
Vighi, F., & Feldner, H. (2007). Ideology critique or discourse analysis? Žižek against Foucault. European Journal of Political Theory, 6(2), 141-159.
Handbooks:
Bod, R. (2013). A new history of the humanities: The search for principles and patterns from antiquity to the present. OUP UK.
Damai, P. (Ed.). (2025). Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory: Concepts and Applications. Routledge.
Di Leo, J. R. (2023). Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory. Bloomsbury Academic.
Engler, S., & Stausberg, M. (Eds.). (2021). The Routledge handbook of research methods in the study of religion. Routledge.
Peer, W., Zyngier, S., & Hakemulder, F. (2012). Scientific methods for the humanities. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: