Body as Inquiry Method: Locating the Black and Brown Body

• In Event: Visual Methods in Qualitative Research

Abstract

A theoretical framework of a methodology used in the qualitative study of afro-diasporic dance productions and performances in public space of scholarship and education is reported. In the framework participant and researcher bodies are centered as a method of inquiry, focusing on embodiments of physical sensations, gestures, postures and affective expression or corporealities produced, performed and encountered in preparation for and during performances. Three related aspects of the framework are discussed. They are: 1) embodiments as a racialized phenomenon; 2) the problematics of qualitative body research, which relies almost exclusively on embodied performance and semiotics to read the body; and 3) the limitations that such renderings create for a deeper understanding of racialized bodies in social science and educational research.

Author

• Rosemarie A. Roberts, Connecticut College