Qualitative inquiry is essential for understanding the cultural and social dimensions of economic life and understanding how people construct value, form trust, make choices, and navigate institutions. The Qualitative Methods concentration equips students with tools to study these processes systematically through ethnographic observation, interviewing, interpretive case studies, and close analysis of language, media, and organizational texts. Students learn to treat qualitative evidence as data, to record it carefully, analyze it critically, and connect it to conceptual frameworks about culture, identity, power, and social organization. Across coursework and applied projects, students develop skills in listening, observation, and analytic writing, with attention to research ethics and the responsibilities of representing others’ perspectives. Whether crafting a marketing campaign grounded in customer narratives, researching user experience, or formulating policy with on-the-ground cultural insight, students with a qualitative toolkit can connect data to real-world human dynamics. This concentration pairs well with Entrepreneurship, International Business Environment, Sports Management, and Strategy and Consulting.
Sponsored by: History & Society
Faculty Contacts: Houman Oliaei