Creative Tensions: Ethics, risk, and methodological innovation...

Creative tensions: Ethics, risk, and methodological innovation in qualitative and arts-based research

Associate Professor Susan Cox, University of British Columbia

Co-hosted by the Qualitative Research Network Hub and the Black Dog Institute

Summary

Digital storytelling, found poetry, and collaborative mural making are but a few of the arts-based approaches currently being used by qualitative researchers. Unpacking some of the creative tensions that lie at the heart of many of these approaches, this presentation will focus on the relationship between ethics, risk, and methodological innovation. Drawing upon examples from recent health research collaborations using theatre, poetry, and visual arts, Associate Professor Cox will identify places of creative tension that generate both ethical challenges and insights. These challenges and insights have implications for institutional review procedures as well as for how we, as qualitative researchers, create and engage in what we believe to be respectful research practices. A light lunch will be served after the seminar.

Biography

Associate Professor Susan Cox is an interdisciplinary health researcher with expertise in medical sociology and qualitative methodology. Her current research focuses on the use of arts-based methods in health research, and the experiences of human subjects participating in health research, including the implications for an evidence-based and participant-centred approach to ethical review. Susan has also conducted research on genetic risk and the experiences of persons undergoing predictive testing for late onset conditions. She has an active interest in narrative, poetry, and visual imagery as vital forms of human expression that offer valuable heuristic insights as well as significant opportunities for engaging citizens in GELS research. With funding from Health Canada and CIHR, she and her colleagues (Nisker & Kazubowski-Houston) pioneered the use of live theatre to engage the public in the process of health policy development.