Theme description RELV309 - Research methods, ethics and project design

This course exists of two parts. In the first part the students explore central methodological issues and research methods from the human and social sciences used in the study of religion. In part 2 of the course, the students will learn important basics of the craft of constructing and writing a research project.

We will study several concepts and issues fundamental to the methodology of studying religion today, namely epistemology, comparison, feminist approaches to religion, and research ethics. Then we explore a selection of methods used in religion (participant observation, interviewing, structured observation, content analysis, discourse analysis, history, hermeneutics, philology, and document analysis). In the course’s second part, the students learn and apply techniques and strategies to write an effective research project, culminating in the writing of a proposal for an MA project.