Creative Storytelling

Research Methods

I use qualitative and creative methods, in particular ethnography and go-along interviews. These methods offer the chance to understand people's lives in all their complexity. They show how full of deep, layered and often unspoken knowledge everyday life is - and what effort people put into crafting their lives. 

• Ethnography

• Narrative Interviews

• Go along interviews

• Mapping and collaging

• Focus Groups

• Semi-structured interviews

• Document analysis

Writing up research as telling stories

Stories are what makes research interesting. I love sharing stories in ethnographic writing in articles, and I am passionate about using other formats to bring them to a wider audience.

• Poetry: Inspired by a workshop with other PhDs, I wrote up some research in the shape of poetry here.

• Illustrated zine (coming soon): Elly Jahnz illustrated and designed this booklet. I wrote the stories in there based on different experiences of walking, wheeling, cycling and using public transport that participants told me about. These experiences are conveyed in fiction.

• Documentary film (coming soon): On the COAST project (Universities of Exeter and Durham), we were lucky to work with Carl Joyce. He filmed a short documentary on experiences and challenges to walking, wheeling and bus-ing in East Durham.