Doing research about peer support: from friendly qualitative enquiry to scary RCT(November, 2018)

Guest Speaker: Dr Steve Gillard, University of London

Our research has always focused on people’s experiences and understandings of their mental health and the mental health care they receive, and more recently the increasing role people play in producing the mental health services they make use of. And that research has always been informed and shaped by the perspectives of researchers who use their own experiences of mental distress in their work. So we inevitably became involved/ preoccupied by peer support and what that looked like when mental health services started employing peer workers. We found much that was positive and inspiring, and also much that was challenging as the values underpinning peer support met the formal organisational cultures of statutory healthcare services. Foolishly or otherwise our response has been a programme of research to develop, pilot and trial and peer worker intervention to support discharge from inpatient to community mental health services. The challenge of running an RCT aside, our commitment to peer support and the centrality of experiential knowledge in the way we do our research has led us to ask ‘are we sure it is peer support that we are evaluating here’? And ‘if it does work, what exactly is going on’? So we become qualitative researchers again.

Neoliberal nudity: gendered body practices in public/private times(September, 2018)

Guest Speaker: Professor Virginia Braun, University of Auckland

In this talk, Prof Ginny Braun speculatively explores the idea of “neoliberal nudity” through reference to two particular sites and modes of body modification: body hair removal/retention, and vulval genital cosmetic surgery and related procedures.

Creative tensions: Ethics, risk, and methodological innovation in qualitative and arts-based research (3rd October, 2017)

Guest Speaker: Associate Professor Susan Cox, University of British Columbia

Digital storytelling, found poetry, and collaborative mural making are but a few of the arts-based approaches currently being used by qualitative researchers. Unpacking some of the creative tensions that lie at the heart of many of these approaches, this presentation will focus on the relationship between ethics, risk, and methodological innovation…

Ethical dilemmas, creative solutions: Panel discussion on ethics in qualitative research (5th October, 2017)

Guest Speakers: A/Prof Susan Cox, Prof Marilys Guillemin, Prof Heather Worth, Dr Caroline Lenette

Drawing on their wide-ranging experience, panel discussants will consider some of the key questions and challenges that qualitative researchers face. Through a lively discussion, they will share their insights and strategies in the on-going process of ‘ethics in practice’…

QRN Hub Showcase (July, 2018)

Guest Speaker: Professor Deborah Lupton, University of Canberra

In this talk, Professor Deborah Lupton from the University of Canberra, discusses how using a range of qualitative methods, both time-honoured and new, across a number of research projects can help generate rich insights into people's everyday lives. These methods provide a window into people's worlds: their experiences, views, practices, routines, emotions and their relationships with other people and with objects like digital technologies and digital data. Deborah also gives some examples from her recent and current research to show what qualitative research can do, before ending with some thoughts about innovation in qualitative methods.

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