Course Overview
This course offers a hands-on introduction to creative approaches to doing qualitative research. It is designed for researchers and PhD students who already have a background in qualitative research techniques and would like to expand their knowledge to include more creative techniques. The course will engage with various stages of research including from data collection and analysis through to sharing qualitative data. The course is taught by a team based in Sociology. The team are all members of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives which is established internationally as a centre of excellence for research in the fields of personal life, relationships, and everyday life.
One of the best courses I've attended, I feel energised with my research (Attendee, 2025)
Further Course Details
The course will begin by introducing what is meant by doing qualitative research creatively and course participants will have the opportunity to provide short introductions to their research projects. Participants will be given a practical and hands-on introduction to methods such as elicitation and digital methods. We will also introduce facet methodology and cover creative ways of analysing qualitative data and practical and intellectual strategies for sharing qualitative data. The course includes practical exercises involving creating qualitative data and data analysis. Participants will also have the opportunity to discuss methodological issues related to their ongoing research projects.
Taster session
On 19 March 12-1pm we will hold an online taster session.
In this session you will meet the course team and be introduced to the topics that will be included within the Creative Approaches to Qualitative Research summer school, including elicitation and digital methods, as well as facet methodology and creative ways to analyse and disseminate qualitative data. The course team will introduce some of the activities that will be delivered during the summer school and outline the opportunities that course attendees will have to discuss methodological issues related to their own ongoing research projects. There will also be chance to speak with the course lead and ask questions so that you can get a sense of whether this summer school is the right fit for you.
I didn’t know how much creativity can change the way I could see my data - and myself as a researcher (Attendee, 2025)
Workshop Leads
Dr Sophie Atherton (she/her) is a Research Associate for the ESRC-funded project, ‘Uncovering Hidden Inequality: Developing New Ways of Doing Death Administration’. Sophie is interested in the sociologies of personal life, gender and sexuality, health and illness, and education and youth studies. She also has interest and experience in qualitative research methods, especially interviews and facet methodology. Ms Hazel Burke (she/her) is a Communications Officer based in the Sociology department. She has 20 years’ experience working on research projects, many of them at The Morgan Centre, supporting public engagement, outreach and communications. Dr Liang Ge (they/them) is a Lecturer of Sociology. Liang is a queer feminist sociologist, and their work lies in the intersection of cultural sociology, digital media and technologies, digital methods, gender, sexuality, youth and East and Southeast Asian popular cultures and creative industries. Liang's research seeks to elucidate how digital media and technologies function as terrains of struggle, and to explore how queerness and feminism in digital cultures act as the very creative drive that generates transgressive and transformative potentials. Dr Jess Mancuso (she/her) is a Lecturer of Sociology with expertise in gender, sexuality and feminism. She has worked with LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people to understand their experiences in, and perspectives of, social spaces. Prof. Jennifer Mason (she/her) is a Professor Emerita of Sociology. Jennifer’s research involves asking questions about ‘relatedness’, affinities, and connectedness in everyday personal lives. She has an enduring interest in kinship in particular, as well as other forms of relationship and association. She is particularly interested in qualitative, creative and mixed method approaches, including facet methodology. Dr. Laura Towers (she/her) is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Sociology Department. She is using a relational approach to consider how siblings bereaved by suicide understand and make sense of their loss over time through narratives of personal experience. Overall, Laura is keen to explore the social nature of grief, loss and bereavement, emphasising the longevity of these experiences. Prof. Sophie Woodward (she/her) is a Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives. Sophie researches material culture, everyday life and consumption using a range of creative research methods. As the Co-Director of the Morgan Centre into Everyday Lives, she uses theories of personal life and everyday relationships to think through how people relate to things/object and how relations to each other are mediated.
Course Objectives
The primary aim of the course is to help attendees to develop an inventive orientation that puts the researcher’s creativity and imagination at the heart of methodological practice. This will include:
- Introducing participants to creative methods both as an approach, and as a means of generating social science research data
- Providing an introduction to, and practical experience in, the use of a range of creative methods of data collection
- Introducing participants to creative analytical strategies
- Offering participants opportunities to think about how they could use creative approaches in their own research
- Introducing participants to strategies for sharing qualitative data
Preparatory work or pre-requisites
This is an intermediate-level course, so, to benefit and engage fully, all participants are required to have some experience in qualitative research methods, data collection and analysis (we do not require experience in creative methods specifically). By purchasing a place on this course, you are confirming that you have some previous experience of qualitative methods. If you are unsure whether your experience fits this criteria, then please email methods@manchester.ac.uk outlining your qualitative methods experience/questions and we will check with the course leads. Following registration on the course, all attendees will be asked to answer a few questions in order to provide some further pre-course information about their interests and experiences with qualitative data, as well as details of any data they will be bringing to the course. We reserve the right to cancel the place (refunding any monies paid) if it becomes clear that you have registered but do not have the required experience outlined above, so please do check with us prior to registration if you have any doubts that you meet this requirement. Many thanks for your understanding.
Useful reading:
- Hine, C. (2020) Ethnography for the Internet: Embedded, Embodied, and Everyday, London: Routledge
- Holmes, H.elen and Hall, S.arah M.arie (eds.) (2020) Mundane Methods: Innovative Ways to Research the Everyday, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- Mason, J. (2018) Qualitative Researching (3rd edn), Sage: London.
- Mason, J. (2011) ‘Facet methodology: The case for an inventive research orientation’, Methodological Innovations Online, 6(3): 75-92 (open access here).
- Pink, S., (2015). Doing Sensory Ethnography (2nd edn), Sage, London.
- Woodward, Sophie. (2020). Material Methods: Researching and Thinking with Things. London: Sage.
Who should attend?
Any researchers or PhD students who already have a background in qualitative research techniques and possess an interest in expanding their knowledge, experience and understanding of creative qualitative research methods.
Course Timetable
This course will take place in-person Monday 6 July - Wednesday 8 July
1:30 - 5:00pm Monday
Facet methodology - Dr Sophie Atherton and Prof Jennifer Mason
9:00 - 12:30pm Tuesday
Elicitation methods (object and sensory) – Dr Laura Towers
1:30 - 5:00pm Tuesday
Digital methods - Dr Liang Ge
9:00 - 12:30pm Wednesday
Analysing qualitative data and zine making – Prof Sophie Woodward, Dr Jess Mancuso and Ms Hazel Burke
1:30 - 5:00pm Wednesday
Analysing qualitative data and zine making – Prof Sophie Woodward, Dr Jess Mancuso and Ms Hazel Burke
What's included in the course?
Each full day includes a vegan buffet lunch served 12.30-1.30pm. There are morning and afternoon refreshment breaks with tea, coffee, water, and pastries/cakes.
The course includes a social programme - these are optional but free social events for everyone attending our summer school to meet attendees from other courses in a relaxed environment.
Accommodation and travel are not included in the course price. You will need to arrange any accommodation and travel separately.
Cost
- Full price: £560
- PGR/Reduced Rate: £370
As well as PGRs, reduced fees are available to those working within the voluntary, charity and community sector. We also have two bursary options available for those entitled to reduced fees. Please view more information on our main Summer School website to find out more and how to apply.
Book Your Place
Please purchase via our online store below before 15 June (payment by card only). If you any questions, or will have trouble purchasing by this date please get in touch with methods@manchester.ac.uk.
Any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on methods@manchester.ac.uk