LIST OF PANELS

Emotions play a crucial role in shaping political discourse, public policy, and institutional legitimacy. They are not merely individual experiences but socially embedded phenomena that structure the way knowledge, power, and decision-making processes unfold. This half-day pre-conference course introduces participants to Interpretive Emotions Analysis (IEA)—a methodological approach designed to systematically analyze emotions in policy debates, institutional action, and public controversies.

The session will first provide a concise theoretical overview of the role of emotions in policy studies, drawing on scholarship from political sociology, feminist epistemology, and discourse analysis. We will explore how emotions act as knowledge-producing elements (Ahmed 2013) and how they shape public legitimacy (Durnová 2019). The course will then focus on the practical application of IEA, demonstrating how interpretive methodologies allow researchers to analyze emotional language, in policy texts, media representations, and other examples of political discourse.

By the end of the session, participants will be familiar with key analytical strategies, including coding emotional registers, identifying semantic clusters, and tracing the socio-political context of emotions in different types of data. The session will include hands-on exercises and discussions on how to integrate IEA into participants’ own research projects.

Course Outline

Introduction: Why Study Emotions in Policy Research?

Emotions as socially and politically embedded (Ahmed 2013; Berlant 2004)

Emotions in public policy: legitimacy, governance, and political action (Durnová 2019; Gould 2009)

Theoretical Framework of IEA

The interplay of emotions, power, and knowledge 

Emotions as discursive practices and framing tools (Foucault 1966;)

Analytical Strategies for IEA

Identifying emotional registers and rhetorical devices

Coding semantic fields of emotions  ( metaphors, analogies,  hyperboles, etc.)

Contextualizing emotions within policy narratives and institutional settings

Hands-On Exercise: Applying IEA to Policy Texts

Group activity: analyzing policy documents, political speeches, or media coverage

Discussion: integrating IEA into your research design

Tailoring IEA to your own research project

Practical challenges and methodological limitations & Future research directions 

Pre-reading materials will be provided before the course. Participants are also encouraged to bring their own data materials for the hands-on exercise.

Preconference Course