Qualitative Research Symposium 2018

Date:

31/01/2018

Organised by:

University of Bath

Presenter:

Dr Bryan Clift

Level:

Intermediate (some prior knowledge)

Contact:

qrs2018@bath.ac.uk

Map:

View in Google Maps  (BA2 7AY)

Venue:

Chancellors’ Building
University of Bath
Claverton Down
Bath

Description:

The Annual Symposium, now in its fourth year, is a forum for researchers to facilitate interdisciplinary discussion of common features, challenges, and changes in qualitative research. This year, the theme of the Symposium is: How Do We Belong?: Researcher Positionality Within Qualitative Inquiry.

Any form of qualitative inquiry is a social construction. The claims we make within our work are always negotiated through the voice of the author and as such are fused to narrative construction. Importantly, the role that the researcher plays in a research project requires some form of acknowledgement of awareness of that position. That awareness can be demonstrated in a variety of ways. Some authors choose to ‘reflect’ on their position within the discussion of their methods. Others write themselves directly into the work in order to ‘reveal’ their position, often more implicitly than explicitly. Some forms of writing engage that positionality directly, as a form of inquiry itself (e.g. autoethnography). Regardless of the form chosen to demonstrate positional awareness, qualitative researchers must necessarily engage in the ‘I-thou’ relationship of the work.

In the Symposium this year, we invite researchers to explore their positionality within their current work. Often, we do not have the time or space to explore these positions with much depth. Peer- reviewers, editors, and funders all tend to privilege the knowledge generated through the work over its multiple methodological nuances. As such, we aim to provide space for researchers to:

  • Reflect on their current work in terms of the ways in which their ideas, values, and beliefs shape and are shaped by the work.
  • Share and discuss how scholars in a variety of disciplines view, understand, and value the positionality of the researcher.
  • Consider other possibilities for thinking, sharing, and writing about positionality.

More than 50 abstracts were submitted to the Symposium this year specific to the theme of positionality. The schedule and details of the Symposium will be released in mid to late December or early January once authors, presenters, and speakers are confirmed.

The Keynote presenter this year is Dr Sara Delamont. She is Reader Emerita in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff. She has been given both the BSA’s Liftetime Service Award and BERA’s John Nisbet Award and has a DSc Econ from Cardiff University. Involved with the Academy of Social Sciences since its beginnings in 1980, she was elected a Fellow in 2002, and is also a Fellow of the newer Learned Society of Wales.

Her most recent book (written with Neil Stephens and Claudio Campos) is Embodying Brazil: An Ethnography of Diasporic Capoeira, Routledge 2017, based on fieldwork beginning in 2003, and still going on. Her favourite of her own books is Feminist Sociology, Sage 2003. She has been doing ethnographic research since 1969, and was one of the founding editors of the Sage journal Qualitative Research.

Cost:

Free

Website and registration:

Region:

South West

Keywords:

Qualitative Data Handling and Data Analysis, Qualitative Approaches (other)

Related publications and presentations:

Qualitative Data Handling and Data Analysis
Qualitative Approaches (other)

Back to archive...