2025/2026
Creative research methods for social sciences
| Faculty | Faculty of Human Geography and Planning |
| Semester | 2024/2025 (summer) |
| Duration | 20 |
| ECTS | 4 |
Timetable
Lectures and workshops will be preferably 2 hours each week (10 meetings in total). The timetable will be provided at the start of semester.
Location: Collegium Geographicum, Bogumiła Krygowskiego 10, Faculty of Human Geography and Planning
Module aim (aims)
This module aims to broaden the knowledge about creative approaches to research projects. We will deal with qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches within the social sciences. The starting point for considering new and creative research methods will be the introduction to basic methodological foundations of science and motivations behind the augmentation of traditional research approaches. We will discuss how new technologies, devices, and software like VR and AR technologies, social media, geomedia, etc., are becoming new data sources. We will also answer in which cases creative methods are appropriate in research projects. Finally, we will consider ethical issues related to collecting and processing new forms of data obtained through creative methods and forms of presentation and dissemination of results. The module will consist of a lecture and a workshop part.
Syllabus
Topic 1: Thinking outside the box – introduction to creative methods (3 meetings)
Topic 2: Ethical issues in research (2 meeting)
Topic 3: Using new technologies during research process (4 meetings)
Topic 4: Visual methodologies (2 meetings)
Topic 4: Participatory research (2 meetings)
Topic 5: Handling creative data – presentation and dissemination (2 meetings)
Reading list
1. Von Benzon, N., Wilkinson, S., Wilkinson, C., & Holton, M. (2021). Creative methods for human geographers. Creative Methods for Human Geographers, 1-424.
2. Kara, H. (2015). Creative research methods in the social sciences: A practical guide. Policy press.
3. Jones, P., Osborne, T., Sullivan-Drage, C., Keen, N., & Gadsby, E. (2022). Virtual reality methods: A guide for researchers in the social Sciences and humanities. Policy Press.
4. Crang, M. (2010). Visual methods and methodologies. The Sage handbook of qualitative geography, 208-224.
5. Freeman, C. (2020). Multiple methods beyond triangulation: collage as a methodological framework in geography. Geografiska annaler: Series B, human geography, 102(4), 328-340.
6. Vaughn, L. M., & Jacquez, F. (2020). Participatory research methods–Choice points in the research process. Journal of Participatory Research Methods, 1(1).
7. Sloan, L., & Quan-Haase, A. (2022). The SAGE handbook of social media research methods. The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Research Methods, 1-100.
8. Zimmer, M. (2020). “But the data is already public”: on the ethics of research in Facebook. In The ethics of information technologies (pp. 229-241). Routledge.
9. Babbie, E. R. (2020). The practice of social research. Cengage AU.
Human Geography Thought: A Critical Introduction
| Faculty | Faculty of Human Geography and Planning |
| Semester | 2025/2026 (winter) |
| Duration | 15 |
| ECTS | 3 |
Timetable
Workshop will be preferably 2 hours each week (7 meetings in total). The timetable will be provided at the start of semester.
Location: Collegium Geographicum, Bogumiła Krygowskiego 10, Faculty of Human Geography and Planning
Module aim (aims)
The module aims to:
- Enhance the ability to analyze and communicate geographical theories.
- Familiarize students with foundational concepts and paradigms in human geography.
- Develop critical thinking and discussion skills by engaging with key geographical texts.
Syllabus
Topic 1: Introduction and Course Framework
Topic 2: Early Geographies
Topic: 3: Humanistic Geographies
Topic 4: Feminist and Postmodern Geographies
Topic 5: Postcolonial and Decolonial Geographies
Topic 6 More-than-Human Geographies
Topic 7: New Geographies?
Reading list
Cresswell, T. (2024). Geographic thought: a critical introduction. John Wiley & Sons.
Hubbard, P., & Kitchin, R. (Eds.). (2010). Key thinkers on space and place. Sage.
Koch, R., & Latham, A. (Eds.). (2017). Key thinkers on cities. Sage.
Nayak, A., & Jeffrey, A. (2013). Geographical thought: An introduction to ideas in human geography. Routledge.
More books and papers for seminars will be given during classes.
AI Essential Tools for Social Science Research
| Faculty | Faculty of Human Geography and Planning |
| Semester | 2025/2026 (summer) |
| Duration | 15 |
| ECTS | 3 |
Timetable
Workshop will be preferably 2 hours each week (7 meetings in total). The timetable will be provided at the start of semester.
Location: Collegium Geographicum, Bogumiła Krygowskiego 10, Faculty of Human Geography and Planning
Module aim (aims)
The module aims to:
- Encourage students to integrate AI tools into their research workflows effectively.
- Introduce students to cutting-edge AI tools and their applications in social science research.
- Equip students with practical skills to use AI for data analysis, and visualization.
- Foster critical thinking about the ethical implications of AI in research.
Syllabus
Topic 1: Introduction to AI tools in research: ethics and limitations
Topic 2: AI-powered literature reviews
Topic 3: Integrating ChatGPT into researcher work
Topic 4: Text analysis with AI tools
Topic 5: Data visualization with AI tools
Topic 6: AI for survey and questionnaire design
Reading list
Bail, C. A. (2024). Can Generative AI improve social science?. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(21), e2314021121.
Grossmann, I., Feinberg, M., Parker, D. C., Christakis, N. A., Tetlock, P. E., & Cunningham, W. A. (2023). AI and the transformation of social science research. Science, 380(6650), 1108-1109.
Schlagwein, D., & Willcocks, L. (2023). ‘ChatGPT et al.’: The ethics of using (generative) artificial intelligence in research and science. Journal of Information Technology, 38(3), 232-238.
Fui-Hoon Nah, F., Zheng, R., Cai, J., Siau, K., & Chen, L. (2023). Generative AI and ChatGPT: Applications, challenges, and AI-human collaboration. Journal of Information Technology Case and Application Research, 25(3), 277-304.
2024/2025
Creative research methods for social sciences
| Faculty | Faculty of Human Geography and Planning |
| Semester | 2024/2025 (summer) |
| Duration | 30 |
| ECTS | 5 |
Timetable
Classes will be held at Faculty of Human Geography and Planning):
- until 14.04.2025 each Monday from 9:45 am- 11:45 am
- from 14.04.2025 each Monday from 11:30 am – 01:00 pm
Due to room availability, the course will start in April 2025. Students will be informed about the first meeting date through USOSmail. Please check your AMU student emails.
At the first meeting there is a possibility to change the schedule of classes.
Location: Collegium Geographicum, Bogumiła Krygowskiego 10, Faculty of Human Geography and Planning
Module aim (aims)
This module aims to broaden the knowledge about creative approaches to research projects. We will deal with qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches within the social sciences. The starting point for considering new and creative research methods will be the introduction to basic methodological foundations of science and motivations behind the augmentation of traditional research approaches. We will discuss how new technologies, devices, and software like VR and AR technologies, social media, geomedia, etc., are becoming new data sources. We will also answer in which cases creative methods are appropriate in research projects. Finally, we will consider ethical issues related to collecting and processing new forms of data obtained through creative methods and forms of presentation and dissemination of results. The module will consist of a lecture and a workshop part.
Syllabus
Topic 1: Thinking outside the box – introduction to creative methods (3 meetings)
Topic 2: Ethical issues in research (2 meeting)
Topic 3: Using new technologies during research process (4 meetings)
Topic 4: Visual methodologies (2 meetings)
Topic 4: Participatory research (2 meetings)
Topic 5: Handling creative data – presentation and dissemination (2 meetings)
Reading list
1. Von Benzon, N., Wilkinson, S., Wilkinson, C., & Holton, M. (2021). Creative methods for human geographers. Creative Methods for Human Geographers, 1-424.
2. Kara, H. (2015). Creative research methods in the social sciences: A practical guide. Policy press.
3. Jones, P., Osborne, T., Sullivan-Drage, C., Keen, N., & Gadsby, E. (2022). Virtual reality methods: A guide for researchers in the social Sciences and humanities. Policy Press.
4. Crang, M. (2010). Visual methods and methodologies. The Sage handbook of qualitative geography, 208-224.
5. Freeman, C. (2020). Multiple methods beyond triangulation: collage as a methodological framework in geography. Geografiska annaler: Series B, human geography, 102(4), 328-340.
6. Vaughn, L. M., & Jacquez, F. (2020). Participatory research methods–Choice points in the research process. Journal of Participatory Research Methods, 1(1).
7. Sloan, L., & Quan-Haase, A. (2022). The SAGE handbook of social media research methods. The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Research Methods, 1-100.
8. Zimmer, M. (2020). “But the data is already public”: on the ethics of research in Facebook. In The ethics of information technologies (pp. 229-241). Routledge.
9. Babbie, E. R. (2020). The practice of social research. Cengage AU.