Inhabiting the In-Between: Reflections on Methodological Displacement

• In Event: Dwelling in the In-Between: Relational and Sensory Turns in Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on our process of traversing the liminal spaces that emerge as we shift away from conventional approaches in qualitative inquiry. We are graduate students at a Southern R1 institution, caught between institutional and disciplinary demands for conventional research and our need for transformative work. Drawing on Gloria Anzaldúa's (1987/2022) concept of nepantla and Sara Ahmed's (2017) brick walls, we examine the alienation we experienced within our academic spaces, and share how the discomfort of these borderlands, which initially felt isolating, became generative when we came together as scholars and friends. This work created space for us to exist and work in-between methodological worlds.

Authors

• Chloe Fann, University of Memphis

• Chelsea D. Liddell, University of Memphis