GUEST LECTURER
Roleplay and Research: Documentary Director Proves Impacts of Qualitative Research Methods

Director Katie Mathews began her career in qualitative research. She began her most recent project, Roleplay—a documentary filmed at Tulane University that examines the culture of sexual assault on college campuses—with a research study focused on student-designed solutions. Qualitative research methods, including lengthy one-on-one interviews, significantly contributed to the film’s success. 

On October 29, Fordham University held a film screening of Roleplay at its Rose Hill campus. Afterward, Mathews joined producer Jenny Mercein—as well as Tulane alumni Aaron Avidon and Miranda Jo Kramer—two of the film’s original cast members, for a discussion moderated by members of Fordham’s United Student Government Committee on Sexual Misconduct.

Just the day before, Mathews made a special trip to Graduate School of Social Service Assistant Professor Jenn Lilly’s Qualitative Research class to discuss the film. However, that conversation was framed around technical aspects of qualitative research and how mastery of those skills can facilitate large-scale change—a topic of particular interest to social workers, whose research results are felt across sectors. 

“Today’s discussion will focus on how to communicate beyond academia and how to leverage research to make change,” Lilly said, addressing the classroom. “And how even practitioners can use research tools within their respective arenas.”

A Career Shift Toward Impact

While Mathews may have started her career journey in research, it wasn’t the kind that allowed for a direct line to positive change. She worked in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) space, conducting qualitative research to help design society’s next commodity. 

After some time, the work felt stale. Mathews didn’t want to design beer cans for better consumption; she wanted to make a meaningful contribution to public design. She set her sights on IDEO, a firm focused on human-centered design thinking. 

“IDEO wanted to understand how people at the extremes thought,” Mathews said. 

Roleplay chronicles a group of Tulane students as they create a play in response to the survey’s results. However, as the students assumed their character roles, they often found themselves grappling with the reality that the play represented in their immediate lives. 

“[The film portrays the] transition into college and finding oneself,” Mathews said. “[In reality and in the play], the students were playing roles created by society founded on systemic violence.” 

Using Research Tools to Get the Message Right

To identify the 15 students who would eventually create the play that Roleplay centers on, Mathews and her team conducted individual interviews with over 50 students. Each interview lasted over an hour and covered sensitive topics like rape culture and sexual assault. 

Mathews said consent was of strict importance to her and her team throughout the interview process. Students were able to review their interview answers and flag anything they didn’t want included in the film. 

This autonomy and authority continued throughout the filming and editing processes; students could choose not to film on a scheduled day—even if the entire crew was already set up to shoot—or leave anything already shot on the cutting room floor. 

“We wanted [the relationship] to reflect sexual consent,” she said. 

Mathews ended the discussion by introducing some actionable tools students could use to enhance their qualitative research interviewing skills. She said they were invaluable to her during Roleplay’s creation:

Tool #1: Past/Present/Future – Have interviewees divide a piece of paper and ask them to consider a subject through the lens of the past, present, and future, then ask them to draw their responses. Mathews said the drawing aspect specifically engages participants in the exercise and makes them more likely to tap into their emotions.

Tool #2: Safety Map – This tool, specific to the Roleplay project, can be applied elsewhere. Mathews gave students a map of Tulane’s campus and asked them to circle places on the map where they felt safe in one color and where they felt unsafe in a different color. Mathews said this exercise highlighted the intersection of race and sexual violence, given that minority students’ answers were almost always filled with more “unsafe” circles than their white counterparts. 

While Mathews may not be intimately visiting classrooms on a regular basis (Dr. Lilly got access through a Tulane connection!), she is continuously taking Roleplay on the road to different universities, igniting a conversation around sexual violence at a pivotal time in young people’s lives. This is the power of qualitative research; it is a science and an art form that holds the potential to tell stories that change society. Mathews travels across the country as an embodiment of that. 

“I was interested in addressing this topic in a more artistic way,” Mathews said. “The goal is to change the narrative around consent.”