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MESH Cross-pollinators

Methods Seminar: Interview Research across Disciplines | Experiences from Anthropology and Applied Linguistics

Dr Sinah Kloß (University of Bonn) and Dr Carolin Schwegler (University of Cologne)

April 4, 2023 | 12.00 – 13.00 | GSSC, 3.03 (Classen-Kappelmann-Str. 24, 3rd floor, 50931 Cologne)

In this talk, Dr Sinah Kloß and Dr Carolin Schwegler will discuss various aspects of interview research, using examples from their interview-based projects. Different disciplines use qualitative interviews as a basic research method, facing a variety of challenges and opportunities. From the perspective of applied linguistics and social and cultural anthropology, they will examine the benefits and challenges of interview research in the humanities, structured and unstructured interviewing techniques, and interdisciplinary approaches to interview analysis. Furthermore, the talk highlights the influences of the interview participants, environment and research context, and intersectional identities on these processes of empirical data acquisition and analysis.

Dr Sinah Kloß (Research Group Leader at BCDSS, University of Bonn)

Sinah Kloß holds a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology from Heidelberg University. Since February 2020 she is leader of the research group Marking Power: Embodied Dependencies, Haptic Regimes and Body Modification at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, University of Bonn. Her current research project discusses the sensory history of touch and body modification, and focuses on the interrelation of tactility, religion and servitude in Hindu communities of Suriname, Trinidad and Guyana. Her most recent books include the edited volume Tattoo Histories: Transcultural Perspectives on the Narratives, Practices, and Representations of Tattooing (Routledge, 2020) and the monograph Fabrics of Indianness: The Exchange and Consumption of Clothing in Transnational Guyanese Hindu Communities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

Dr Carolin Schwegler (MESH & Department of German Language and Literature I, University of Cologne)

Carolin Schwegler is postdoctoral researcher at MESH. She is a linguist focussing on discourse and conversational linguistics and understands her discipline as an applied and culturally oriented research field with ample multidisciplinary links. She holds a doctorate in German Linguistics (2018, summa cum laude) from the University of Heidelberg and pursues research in environmental linguistics, sociolinguistics in the field of plant studies, and sustainability and risk communication. Her current research focuses on communicative practices of (climate-and health-related) prediction, risk, and prognosis as well as the analysis of future-oriented language, future imaginaries, and communicative expressions of social values.