Dr. Elif Kuş Saillard

Workshops

Standard

• Starter Workshop
• Advanced Workshop

Method Focus

• Qualitative Data Analysis
• Visualizations
• Ethnography
• Grounded Theory
• Mixed Methods

Methodological Expertise

PhD in Sociology (Ankara University) specializing in computer-assisted qualitative data analysis. Sociologist and methodologist with 25+ years of experience: 13 years in academia (Ankara University, from research assistant to associate professor, 2000-2013) and 13 years as an independent researcher and CAQDAS trainer.

• CAQDAS training since 2007 (thousands of researchers trained; MAXQDA trainer since 2009)
• Guidance beyond the qualitative/quantitative/mixed divide: a real companion in your analytical steps
• Original frameworks: the Four-Body Model, the Meaningful Experience Model (MEM), and ANLAMap, a method combining micro-phenomenology, photo-elicitation and semantic relational mapping
• Large-scale hybrid AI-qualitative analysis: Lead Analyst of the Inner Development Goals (IDG) Framework 2.0 (103 countries, 21,943 responses, 15 languages)
• Evaluates qualitative analysis processes with GenAI from a non-polarizing framework; the KWALON blog post "Beyond CAQDAS: From Tools to Co-Responsibility in the Age of GenAI" (2026) also applies the Four-Body Lens 
• Published on systematic vs. interpretive CAQDAS use (FQS, 2011) and on comparing analysis software since the KWALON experiment

Consulting Services

I support researchers, teams and organizations through every step of their analysis journey. Whether you are starting from scratch with your research design or deep into a complex dataset, I help you build an analysis process that stays rigorous, embodied and truly yours.

• Research design and analysis coaching for academic and applied projects, from thesis to large-scale studies
• MAXQDA training and workflow setup for research teams, universities, NGOs and companies
• Together, we develop analysis strategies that keep scientific rigor and embodied analysis at the center, so your analytical sovereignty is preserved when working with AI
• Analysis consulting for complex, multilingual datasets, including hybrid AI and qualitative pipelines in MAXQDA

Experience

I have been a MAXQDA-Trainer since 2009 and have given more than 60 workshops. I hold a PhD in sociology and I studied methodology as a subject in itself. I have used MAXQDA for analyzing qualitative data in several projects. I gave consultancy to several research projects on how to use MAXQDA in their research. I co-organised an international conference in Istanbul (Qualitative Computing: Diverse Worlds and Research Practices, Link: http://qrfrag.blogspot.fr/2011/02/istanbul-qualitative-computing-diverse.html), with top level speakers coming from the UK and Germany and participants from 15 countries.

I regularly offer methodological courses in the field of social research. I am founder of NAM Qualitative Research Center in Turkey which is the only one. I offered workshops to hundreds of academics from various disciplines such as Medicine, Sociology, Psychology, Nursing, etc.  By starting NAM in 2013, it became possible to pursue these activities full-time, offering a full program and being available to respond to the needs of hundreds of academics, students, the commercial sector and anyone that might be interested in CAQDAS for their work or research projects.