Studying Cool Stuff Seriously: Methods for Art and Pop Culture Analysis
Half Day Short Course | Register here
2026 APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition — Boston, MA
1:30 pm – 5:30 pm
The “Studying Cool Stuff Seriously†Short Course includes a methods workshop and a panel discussion on publication and promotion strategies. The workshop is comprised of two sections designed to develop skills and ideas for analyzing cultural content and practices in political science. The first section tackles questions of how to study art and aesthetics in order to make claims about the political world. The second will expand options for scholarly knowledge production by asking participants to reflect on the narratives contained in their own projects and consider alternative media for sharing their research. The panel discussion includes experts at diverse career stages to discuss how to position “cool†research on art and pop culture as rigorous academic inquiry for journal editors, reviewers, search and tenure committees, etc.
Workshop Section 1: “Methods Considerations in Studying the Politics of Art,†led by Tania Islas Weinstein
Whether artists intend it or not, their work often becomes part of museums, national heritage collections, and public culture. Paintings appear in textbooks, poems are taught in schools, and music and films circulate widely through the media. Art also travels across borders, frequently promoted as a symbol of a state or a nation. It serves as testimony to the words and actions of individuals and communities and is mobilized by politicians and social movements to represent people and ideas. Yet art is more than a reflection of its political context. It can transcend its origins, evoking responses far beyond the circumstances of its creation. While art can be analyzed as evidence to help us understand the world as it is, it can also invite us to imagine scenarios that disrupt rather than affirm familiar narratives and encourage new ways of thinking.
This raises a fundamental question: How do we analyze art when our goal is to understand and make claims about the political world? To contend that we can definitively determine the political impact of a work of art would require oversimplifying the complex and varied ways in which artistic practices can be said to “work†in the world. There is a complex causal connection between art and politics. Because artistic practices are influenced by political processes, analyzing art can shed light on those processes. But art is never a simple reflection of its context. It also has the capacity to invite people to see the world not as it is but as it could be. This dual capacity to reflect and to disrupt creates methodological challenges for scholars who seek to use art as a lens into politics. While these challenges can never fully be resolved, there are ways of analyzing art that can help us understand why the world is as it is while simultaneously inviting us – as scholars and citizens – to see it differently.
In this workshop, we will explore how art both mirrors and shapes political realities. We will discuss how a variety of research methods, such as ethnography, visual and discursive analysis, and descriptive approaches, can help us analyze art as a source of evidence and as a catalyst for thinking otherwise. In the process, we will consider artists not only as research participants and informants we can interview but also as political thinkers whose work invites us to see the world anew.
Workshop Section 2: “Creativity and Method in Research Output,†led by Michelle Weitzel
This part of the workshop will focus on storytelling and visuals, asking what might be gained by pushing scholarly praxis beyond exclusively textual forms of production and standard academic formats. Participants will reflect on their own research projects to reimagine them as narratives that follow a plot—not with the intention of “illustrating†or adorning a final product, but with the goal of discovering new ways of shaping the questions they ask, the communities they engage, the data they collect, and the arguments they advance. Using comix, graphic novels and other forms of inspiration, we will discuss strategies for planning and conducting research that keeps creativity at the forefront of inquiry, and how to make these practices work in service of—not against—disciplinary expectations.
Panel: “Strategies for Success in the Disciplineâ€
Composed of women working in comparative and IR areas ranging from museum art collections to graffiti and memes, from celebrities' UN advocacy to right-wing YouTubers and memes, the panel will include an open and frank discussion of gender and other biases that such scholars face, as well as and suggestions for overcoming these biases in publishing and career advancement. The panel will include Micah English, Lisel Hintz, Tania Islas Weinstein, Alexis Lerner, Samantha Majic, Jelena Subotic, Michelle Weitzel, and Colleen Wood. Scholars at any stage of their research and with any level of familiarity working with cultural content are welcome to attend.
- APSA Annual Meeting Pre-conference Short Courses are half- or full-day events that offer diverse professional development opportunities and allow attendees to connect with scholars from various backgrounds. This year's pre-conference short courses will be held on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, in Boston, Massachusetts. Sponsored by APSA Organized Sections, Related Groups, and other affiliated organizations. All short courses require pre-registration to attend.
- Register here for the APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition »
