Poetic Inquiry

Poetic Inquiry: Vibrant Voices in the Social Sciences, co-edited by Monica Prendergast, Carl Leggo and Pauline Sameshima, features many of the foremost scholars working worldwide in aesthetic ways through poetry.

Poetic Inquiry: Craft, Method and Practice examines the use of poetry as a form of qualitative research, representation, and method used by researchers, practitioners, and students from across the social sciences and humanities. It serves as a practical manual for using poetry in qualitative research through the presentation of varied examples of Poetic Inquiry. It provides how-to exercises for developing and using poetry as a qualitative research method. The book begins by mapping out what doing and critiquing Poetic Inquiry entails via a discussion of the power of poetry, poets’, and researchers’ goals for the use of poetry, and the kinds of projects that are best suited for Poetic Inquiry. It also provides descriptions of the process and craft of creating Poetic Inquiry, and suggestions for how to evaluate and engage with Poetic Inquiry. The book further contends with questions of method, process, and craft from poets’ and researchers’ perspectives. It shows the implications for the aesthetic and epistemic concerns in poetry, and furthers transdisciplinary dialogues between the humanities and social sciences. Faulkner shows the importance of considering the form and function of Poetic Inquiry in qualitative research through discussions of poetry as research method, poetry as qualitative analysis and representation, and Poetic Inquiry as a powerful research tool.

This volume speaks to the use of poetry in critical qualitative research and practice focused on social justice. In this collection, poetry is a response, a call to action, agitation, and a frame for future social justice work. The authors engage with poetry’s potential for connectivity, political power, and evocation through methodological, theoretical, performative, and empirical work. The poet-researchers consider questions of how poetry and Poetic Inquiry can be a response to political and social events, be used as a pedagogical tool to critique inequitable social structures, and how Poetic Inquiry speaks to our local identities and politics. The authors answer the question: “What spaces can poetry create for dialogue about critical awareness, social justice, and re-visioning of social, cultural, and political worlds?” This volume adds to the growing body of Poetic Inquiry through the demonstration of poetry as political action, response, and reflective practice. We hope this collection inspires you to write and engage with political poetry to realize the power of poetry as political action, response, and reflective practice.

In the tradition of a decade of bi-annual gatherings of the International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry, this volume serves as the fifth refereed symposium anthology. Enchantments of Place celebrates poetry and poetic voices--theorizing and exploring poetic inquiry as an approach, methodology, and/or method for use in contemporary research practices. Poetic inquiry has increased in prominence as a legitimate means by which to collect, assimilate, analyze, and share the results of research across many disciplines. With this collection, we hope to continue to lay the groundwork internationally, for researchers, scholars, graduate students, and the larger community to take up poetic inquiry as a way to approach knowledge generation, learning, and sharing. This volume specifically works to draw attention to the ancient connection between poetry and the natural world with attention to broadening the ecological scope and impact of the work of poetic inquirers.

In the tradition of a decade of bi-annual gatherings of the International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry, this volume serves as the fifth refereed symposium anthology. Enchantment of Place celebrates poetry and poetic voices—theorizing and exploring poetic inquiry as an approach, methodology, and/or method for use in contemporary research practices. Poetic inquiry has increased in prominence as a legitimate means by which to collect, assimilate, analyze, and share the results of research across many disciplines. With this collection, we hope to continue to lay the groundwork internationally, for researchers, scholars, graduate students, and the larger community to take up poetic inquiry as a way to approach knowledge generation, learning, and sharing. This volume specifically works to draw attention to the ancient connection between poetry and the natural world with attention to broadening the ecological scope and impact of the work of poetic inquirers.

This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to using and creating poetry for conducting and reporting social research. It includes examples of poetry, interviews of poets, and practical exercises that will enhance the discussion of poetry writing as a method. When used as a teaching guide this book will encourage students to consider the importance of form and function in poetry for qualitative methods. It also answers the question of how to teach the creation and evaluation of poetry, it combats the perception that poetry is too difficult or mysterious to use as research and that only poets should be concerned with poetic craft.

The stunning fragmented poetic text and images comprising Staring at the Park depict the events of this difficult journey and an alternative model of evocative, artistic autoethnography.

Qualitative Inquiry unites the basics of research design in qualitative research with the practice of analysing qualitative data. This textbook addresses the theory and practice of choosing and designing a qualitative approach and methodological and analytical ramifications that follow from making such choices. It aims to set out the theoretical underpinnings behind different methodological choices and to help students then follow up on (and interrogate) such approaches. Qualitative Inquiry is the ideal starting point for students on research training courses who have opted to develop a qualitative research project. In it, Butler-Kisber introduces students to theory and then demonstrates this theory in practice by showing how a project is actually designed and actually analysed. This book examines theory, method and interpretation in a way that is meaningful to students and new researchers, as well as discussing newer, more avant-garde, developments in qualitative research in arts-based inquiry. It is essential reading for students who are seeking to make sense of their research and their developing theoretical standpoints.

Evocative Qualitative Inquiry explores academic research that evokes vitality and life. It provides a road map into integrating the personal with professional to engage in intrinsically meaningful forms of inquiry. The book centers on the key considerations of engaging in evocative forms of writing in the academy. It depicts academic inquiry as an embodied process that is captured and understood through rhythm and resonance. It relays how pleasurable, sensory, and rhythmic forms of inquiry can engender a sense of timelessness, expansiveness, growth, and generativity. Evocative Qualitative Inquiry relates the challenges that may arise from following this less trodden academic inquiry path. It conveys the importance of faith and courage in forging one’s own unique and authentic writing voice. The book concludes with an analogy of a poker game to illustrate how all academic writers possess the embodied capacity to write vibrant words that evoke. Finally, each chapter ends with reflection questions and activities to help readers practice the skills of writing evocatively. This book will be a valuable guide for those seeking evocative writing techniques to engage in vibrant forms of academic research. It is primarily written for academics who desire to learn more about creative, poetic, and embodied writing methodologies.

"Elegantly written, convincingly argued, and interspersed with hauntingly beautiful and poignant poems written by his ESL students, Hanauer's book draws attention to the unexplored potential of poetry writing in a second language classroom." Aneta Pavelenko, Temple University --