Attend QUAL Lab Speaker Series presentation on Oct. 31

• Date: Monday, Oct. 31
• Time: Noon-1 p.m.
• Location: Zoom (register today)
• Presenters: Amy Stich, McBee Institute of Higher Education, University of Georgia; Collin Case, McBee Institute of Higher Education, University of Georgia; Kanler Cumbass, Education Strategy Group

Join the UGA qualitative research program for the UGA QUAL Lab Speaker Series: “In Defense of Democratic Qualitative Research Teams in the Neoliberal Academy.”

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.