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 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.
Meet your course leads
The course will be taught by a team from the Morgan Centre who have a expertise in a variety of creative approaches to qualitative research.
Prof. Sophie Woodward 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.
Dr. Petra Nordqvist is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Co-Director of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives. Petra researches the intersection of family life, kinship, gender, sexuality and reproduction, with a particular focus on new reproductive technologies and donor conceptions.
Dr. Rob Meckin is a Presidential Fellow in Sociology. His research focuses on how different ‘technosciences’ emerge and to answer questions about how science is shaped in material, organisational and rhetorical ways.
Dr. Laura Towers 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.
Dr. Maisie Tomlinson is a Lecturer in Sociology. She studies people who study animals, and is interested in how we know what we think we know about other species.
Hazel Burke is the Communications and Development Manager for the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives.
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 sensory 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.
In March 2025 we held an online taster session for the course. The below recording offers you the opportunity to hear a bit more about the course and meet the team (do email us if you have further questions methods@manchester.ac.uk).
Course Aims
At the core of the week’s course is helping 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
Any pre-requisites?
This is an intermediate-level course, and to be able 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, therefore you are confirming that (a) you have some previous experience of qualitative methods and (b) you will be able to bring some data to the course.
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 and the nature of the 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.
Pre-course reading
You may find the following helpful:
- Holmes, Helen and Hall, Sarah Marie (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.
Course timetable
The course begins at 1pm on Monday 30 June and finishes 1pm Wednesday 2 July (i.e. the equivalent of two full days). Further details of the exact course timeline will be shared shortly (please see main summer school webpage for details of the social programme).
Costs
- Full price: £450
- Reduced/PGR cost: £300
As well as PGRs, reduced fees are also 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 page here to find out your eligibility and how to apply.
Book your place
Purchases for this course are not yet available. Please pre-register using the button below, to ensure that you will be contacted by priority once purchases are available.
Any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on methods@manchester.ac.uk
Credits:
Created with an image by wooddy7 - "Freeze motion of colored powder explosions isolated on white background."