This course will provide an opportunity for students to consider how social and cultural assumptions underlie and shape how qualitative methods are used to ‘do’ research: the ‘standards’ that inform data collection strategies and accounts of research ‘ethics’. Students will be encouraged to critically discuss and analyze the issues and implications of these best practices for explaining social ‘problems’ and inequalities within society (e.g. racial disparities in health outcomes, gentrification and access to housing, female participation in the labour market, international ‘development’) , and will further reflect and explore how researchers have tried to counter methodological assumptions through alternative approaches (e.g. decolonizing methodologies, participatory action research, mobile methods). The course will be interactive and experiential, in which students will research and collect data on topics of their choice to consider these themes. The course will also discuss ways in which students can transfer their research skills and communicate their findings to multiple audiences beyond the academic setting.