Ronald J. Pelias – författare

The Creative Qualitative Researcher is designed to help readers see the range of possibilities of creative scholarship. The phrase "creative qualitative researchers" points toward scholars who call upon their literary skills to evoke the emotional and intellectual complexity of their subjects; who deploy their vulnerable, relational, and reflexive selves to expose and change problematic cultural practices; and who engage their embodied ideological and ethical sensibilities as researchers.

Part I introduces chapters on four qualitative methods: autoethnography, performative writing, narrative inquiry and poetic inquiry. Each of these four method chapters presents the method written in the style it features, provides writing prompts for exploring the chapter’s themes, and offers written examples of the method.

Part II, divided into four chapters, aims to develop creative qualitative research skills relevant to the methods discussed in Part I. Chapter 5 discusses empathy and ethics; Chapter 6 is a primer on creative writing; Chapter 7 identifies some alternative ideas for using the words of others; and Chapter 8 focuses on collaborative improvisation to compose scholarly work. Each of the chapters in Part II includes a large number of writing exercises, prompts and strategies to assist scholars in becoming better creative researchers.

By the end of the book, readers will know what creative research might entail and will have a clear understanding of the methods. Working with the various writing strategies, readers will see the potential of creative research and gain skills for its use.

The Creative Qualitative Researcher is designed to help readers see the range of possibilities of creative scholarship. The phrase "creative qualitative researchers" points toward scholars who call upon their literary skills to evoke the emotional and intellectual complexity of their subjects; who deploy their vulnerable, relational, and reflexive selves to expose and change problematic cultural practices; and who engage their embodied ideological and ethical sensibilities as researchers.

Part I introduces chapters on four qualitative methods: autoethnography, performative writing, narrative inquiry and poetic inquiry. Each of these four method chapters presents the method written in the style it features, provides writing prompts for exploring the chapter’s themes, and offers written examples of the method.

Part II, divided into four chapters, aims to develop creative qualitative research skills relevant to the methods discussed in Part I. Chapter 5 discusses empathy and ethics; Chapter 6 is a primer on creative writing; Chapter 7 identifies some alternative ideas for using the words of others; and Chapter 8 focuses on collaborative improvisation to compose scholarly work. Each of the chapters in Part II includes a large number of writing exercises, prompts and strategies to assist scholars in becoming better creative researchers.

By the end of the book, readers will know what creative research might entail and will have a clear understanding of the methods. Working with the various writing strategies, readers will see the potential of creative research and gain skills for its use.

Lessons in Aging and Dying: A Poetic Autoethnography captures the experience of being elderly and facing the end of life. The book presents a collection of poems about life’s end accompanied with narrative commentary. Organized as 73 lessons, they can be read as personal curiosities, momentary realizations, farcical departures, embarrassing fears, therapeutic encounters, experiential truths, hopeful conjectures, and inevitable destinations.

This book is a poetic inquiry that calls upon the lyrical in narrative and poetic forms to enter its subject. It also is an autoethnography that examines culture through the deployment of the self. Framed by introductory and concluding remarks, the book is organized around three developmental stages. The initial pages, "Beginnings," recognize the author’s birth into the end, a time when he knew he had arrived at a place beyond middle age. The middle unit, "From Here to There," displays an unsettled settling in, driven by an ongoing tension between resistance and acquiescence. It serves as a transitional stage into "Endings," the final section that anticipates death’s imminent arrival and speculates about how author might meet his end. Together, these units provide opportunities for identification, speculation, and resistance.

Published as part of the prestigious autoethnographic series Writing Lives: Ethnographic and Autoethnographic Narratives, and written by one of the foremost academics in the fields of communication and performance studies, this text is particularly suitable for students and researchers in subjects such as relational and family communication, gerontology and end-of-life care, and performance studies.

Lessons in Aging and Dying: A Poetic Autoethnography captures the experience of being elderly and facing the end of life. The book presents a collection of poems about life’s end accompanied with narrative commentary. Organized as 73 lessons, they can be read as personal curiosities, momentary realizations, farcical departures, embarrassing fears, therapeutic encounters, experiential truths, hopeful conjectures, and inevitable destinations.

This book is a poetic inquiry that calls upon the lyrical in narrative and poetic forms to enter its subject. It also is an autoethnography that examines culture through the deployment of the self. Framed by introductory and concluding remarks, the book is organized around three developmental stages. The initial pages, "Beginnings," recognize the author’s birth into the end, a time when he knew he had arrived at a place beyond middle age. The middle unit, "From Here to There," displays an unsettled settling in, driven by an ongoing tension between resistance and acquiescence. It serves as a transitional stage into "Endings," the final section that anticipates death’s imminent arrival and speculates about how author might meet his end. Together, these units provide opportunities for identification, speculation, and resistance.

Published as part of the prestigious autoethnographic series Writing Lives: Ethnographic and Autoethnographic Narratives, and written by one of the foremost academics in the fields of communication and performance studies, this text is particularly suitable for students and researchers in subjects such as relational and family communication, gerontology and end-of-life care, and performance studies.

Writing and Other Familiar Things: Autoethnographic Possibilities puts on display a number of distinct ways of structuring essays that can be used in qualitative research and creative writing.

The book takes as its subject an assortment of things. Part 1 approaches writing from a variety of perspectives, addressing distinct aspects of writing such as the power of the written word, the prevalence of writing in our daily lives, and the writing process itself. Part 2 takes on a variety of subjects, including seashells, hands, conundrums, masks, teaching, COVID, partners, hats, gardening, parents, politics, and hope.

By presenting various structural possibilities, the book might be described as a “how-to” book for any writer interested in a variety of creative approaches to writing essays.

Writing and Other Familiar Things: Autoethnographic Possibilities puts on display a number of distinct ways of structuring essays that can be used in qualitative research and creative writing.

The book takes as its subject an assortment of things. Part 1 approaches writing from a variety of perspectives, addressing distinct aspects of writing such as the power of the written word, the prevalence of writing in our daily lives, and the writing process itself. Part 2 takes on a variety of subjects, including seashells, hands, conundrums, masks, teaching, COVID, partners, hats, gardening, parents, politics, and hope.

By presenting various structural possibilities, the book might be described as a “how-to” book for any writer interested in a variety of creative approaches to writing essays.

Writing Performance, Identity, and Everyday Life invites the reader into Ronald J. Pelias’ world of artistic and everyday performance. Calling upon a broad range of qualitative methods, these selected writings from Pelias submerge themselves in the evocative and embodied, in the material and consequential, often creating moving accounts of their topics.

The book is divided into four sections: Foundational Logics, Performance, Identity, and Everyday Life. Part I addresses the methodological underpinnings of the book, focusing on the ‘touchstones’ that inform Pelias’ work: performative, autoethnographic, poetic, and narrative methods. These directions push the researcher toward empathic engagement, a leaning toward others; using the literary to evoke the cognitive and affective aspects of experience; and an ethical sensibility located in social justice. Parts II–IV focus on artistic and everyday life performances, including discussions of the disciplinary shift from the oral interpretation of literature to the field of performance studies; empathy and the actor’s process; conceptions of performance; the performance of race, gender, and sexuality; and performances in interpersonal relations and academic circles.

By the end, readers will see Pelias demonstrate the power of qualitative methods to engage and to present alternative ways of being. Pelias’ work shows us how to understand and feel the evocative strength of thinking performatively.

Writing Performance, Identity, and Everyday Life invites the reader into Ronald J. Pelias’ world of artistic and everyday performance. Calling upon a broad range of qualitative methods, these selected writings from Pelias submerge themselves in the evocative and embodied, in the material and consequential, often creating moving accounts of their topics.

The book is divided into four sections: Foundational Logics, Performance, Identity, and Everyday Life. Part I addresses the methodological underpinnings of the book, focusing on the ‘touchstones’ that inform Pelias’ work: performative, autoethnographic, poetic, and narrative methods. These directions push the researcher toward empathic engagement, a leaning toward others; using the literary to evoke the cognitive and affective aspects of experience; and an ethical sensibility located in social justice. Parts II–IV focus on artistic and everyday life performances, including discussions of the disciplinary shift from the oral interpretation of literature to the field of performance studies; empathy and the actor’s process; conceptions of performance; the performance of race, gender, and sexuality; and performances in interpersonal relations and academic circles.

By the end, readers will see Pelias demonstrate the power of qualitative methods to engage and to present alternative ways of being. Pelias’ work shows us how to understand and feel the evocative strength of thinking performatively.