Because not everything is best understood quantitatively

The First International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
May 5-7, 2005

"The theme of the First International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry focuses on 'Qualitative Inquiry in a Time of Global Uncertainty.' We call on the international community of interpretive scholars to gather together in common purpose to address the implications of the recent attempts by federal governments and their agencies to define what is 'good science', and what constitutes 'good scholarship'. Around the globe governments are attempting to regulate interpretive inquiry by enforcing bio-medical, evidence-based models of research.

These regulatory activities raise basic philosophical, epistemological, political and pedagogical issues for scholarship and freedom of speech in the academy. Their effects are interdisciplinary. They cut across the fields of educational and policy research, the humanities, communications, health and social science, social welfare, business and law.

The mission of the First International Congress is to provide a forum for these critical conversations, to build and expand the already robust tradition of Qualitative Inquiry. This congress gathers together vibrant strands of qualitative research to produce innovative futures. We seek to generate lively, critical debate, foster contacts and the exchange ideas, and draw inspiration from each other. We encourage international participation from different countries, disciplines and cultural backgrounds, as well as from a wide range of research areas."

Looking over my shelves, these are the books on qualitative research that I've most enjoyed and found useful, recently and over the years:

Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco
Anthropology as Cultural Critique
The Predicament of Culture
Interpretation of Cultures
The Ethnographic Imagination
The Ethnographer's Eye

Doing Critical Ethnography
Interpretive Ethnography
Performance Ethnography
Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social
The Vulnerable Observer
Ethnographically Speaking

Handbook of Qualitative Research
Feminism and Method
The Ethnographic Interview
Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes
Tales of the Field
Writing the New Ethnography
Composing Ethnography