Qualitative research occupies a vital and sometimes misunderstood space in the health and medical sciences. While much of health research has historically privileged quantitative methods, there is growing recognition that questions about human experience, meaning, context, and process often require a fundamentally different approach. Understanding why someone feels lonely, how a community makes sense of illness, or what it feels like to navigate the health care system cannot always be explored with numbers.

In this seminar, we'll start from the ground up. We'll explore the philosophical foundations that underpin qualitative inquiry and the major methodological traditions in our field. We'll also turn a critical eye to practice. Qualitative research done well requires more than an interview guide and sorting of answers — it demands reflexivity, coherence between philosophy and method, and transparency in reasoning. We'll examine what genuine rigour looks like in qualitative work and some common missteps that signal a researcher may be applying qualitative methods without fully understanding their underpinnings.

By the end of the session, we hope you'll leave with a stronger conceptual foundation,  a more discerning eye for qualitative work in your field, and a little more excitement about qualitative methods!

Speakers: 

Associate Professor Anna Olsen

Anna has taught qualitative methodologies for 17 years and loves sharing her passion for interpretivism. Her interdisciplinary program of research combines practical and critical approaches to public health, with a particular interest in marginalised populations and qualitative methodologies. She values collaborative approaches to research and has extensive experience working with clinicians, epidemiologists, chemists, statisticians, toxicologists, government and community on evaluation and research projects. 

Associate Professor Brett Scholz

Brett uses discursive and thematic approaches to analysis, and is interested in a wide range of ways to collect and produce data including more ‘mainstream’ interviews and focus groups, but is also interested in naturalistic data, and story completion methods. The majority of his 100+ publications to date use qualitative methods, and he is an associate editor of Qualitative Health Research. He is particularly passionate about using qualitative health research to reposition people drawing on lived experience perspectives as the experts of health policy, services, research and education.

In-person attendance is encouraged for those based on Acton campus.
Online link: https://anu.zoom.us/j/82644534028?pwd=qob0WiR0kmaCiarayPiPGazaq3AdeQ.1 
Meeting ID: 826 4453 4028 
Password: 134364