Sebastian Karcher

Sebastian Karcher is a Research Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at Syracuse University, where he serves as Director of both the Center for Qualitative and Multi-Method Inquiry and the Qualitative Data Repository. He holds additional affiliation as a Senior Research Associate at the Campbell Public Affairs Institute. Karcher earned his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2014 and maintains an active research profile focused on advancing qualitative research methodologies.

His research bridges data curation, open science infrastructure, and qualitative methodology, with specific interests in:

• Ethical frameworks for sensitive data sharing
• Repository development for qualitative research
• Transparency-enhancing tools and practices
• Interdisciplinary data synthesis approaches
• Indigenous data sovereignty initiatives

Karcher has secured substantial research funding including grants from the National Science Foundation and Mellon Foundation. Key projects include:

• Data Services for Indigenous Scholarship and Sovereignty
• Support for Institutes on Qualitative Research (2021-2026)
• Privacy Interoperability frameworks
• Open Science through Journal Editors' Discussion Interface

His scholarly contributions include the 2024 ASIS&T Best Short Paper Award. He teaches qualitative methodology courses and develops pedagogical resources for data management. As an open-source contributor, he maintains tools for Zotero and Citation Style Language.

Through the Qualitative Data Repository, Karcher leads initiatives to develop curation standards and infrastructure supporting ethical reuse of qualitative research data across disciplines including health sciences, sustainability research, and social sciences.