Monday, October 31, 2022 - 1pm Zoom (advance registration required) General Event Join the UGA Qualitative Research Program for the UGA QUAL Lab Speaker Series In Defense of Democratic Qualitative Research Teams in the Neoliberal Academy Monday, October 31st from noon – 1 p.m. EST Zoom link registration: https://bit.ly/UGAQL01 Presented by: Amy Stich, Ph.D. Collin Case Kanler Cumbass – Education Strategy Group (McBee Institute MEd, 2020) As the scope and scale of qualitative research projects expand with pressure for greater amounts of external funding, qualitative researchers are increasingly working on large research teams. Because academic work is shaped by neoliberal logics of efficiency and increased production, qualitative teams often mimic the hierarchical structures of more positivist-leaning teams conducting quantitative research. However, this approach to team research is in direct conflict with the nature of qualitative inquiry and undermines the aims of equity-minded qualitative research. In this presentation, we challenge the often taken-for-granted academic hierarchies that increasingly structure qualitative research teams and discuss how teams might engage in practices that challenge these traditional, oppressive structures. Though the neoliberal university can function as a site for the reproduction of inequality, we join others in arguing for higher education as a site of reflexive resistance to oppressive structures that continue to threaten democratic practice in social and educational research.
