Dialogues With Qualitative Scholars/Methodologists: Theory, Failure, and Other Nomadic Connections

• In Event: Posthumanism, Postmodernism, and Philosophy

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore how theory operates in, with, and through qualitative methodology by drawing on data generated in an interview study with qualitative methodologists/scholars about the failure of theory/philosophy amidst political, social, academic, and personal turmoil. Attuning to moments of affective dissonance with the data, we discovered unplanned agendas driving our research, unspoken delineations of scholar/methodologist and theory/philosophy, and previously unacknowledged ideas about what theory is, how it functions, and how failure as a concept engages with that theory. We hope to inspire conversations about how inquiry agendas and concepts are always already operating– emerging and retreating in nomadic inquiry connections.

Authors

• Jessica Van Cleave, Gardner-Webb University

• Jennifer R. Wolgemuth, University of South Florida

• Rachel Keener Killam, University of South Florida

• Daria Smirnova, University of South Florida

• Alycia Bobak, University of South Florida - St. Petersburg

• Travis Marn, Southern Connecticut State University