The Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology (SQIP), a subdivision of APA Div. 5, will be holding our annual meeting at Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts, on Monday and Tuesday, June 10-11, 2019. An optional pre-conference workshop will be offered by Heidi Levitt, PhD, on Sunday afternoon. The conference will feature a rich and varied assortment of symposia, paper sessions and poster sessions, as well as task force and committee meetings, our keynote address and several plenary sessions.
Keynote Speaker
We are very excited to announce that our keynote speaker this year will be Joseph P. Gone, PhD, professor of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, and professor of anthropology at Harvard University. Gone’s interdisciplinary scholarship examines cultural influences on mental health status, as well as the intersection of evidence-based practice and cultural competence in mental health services. A citizen of the Gros Ventre tribal nation of Montana, he has investigated these issues through collaborative research partnerships in both reservation and urban American Indian communities. Gone has published 75 articles and chapters exploring the cultural psychology of self, identity, personhood and social relations in indigenous community settings vis-à-vis the mental health professions, with particular attention to therapeutic interventions such as psychotherapy and traditional healing. His articles have appeared in the “Annual Review of Clinical Psychology,” “Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology,” “The Counseling Psychologist,” and the “American Journal of Community Psychology.” He has served on the editorial boards of seven scientific journals including “Psychological Clinical Science,” the “American Journal of Community Psychology,” and “Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology.” In 2007, Gone was elected to the board of directors of the national First Nations Behavioral Health Association and he remains an international collaborator for Canada’s Network for Aboriginal Mental Health Research.
Presentation Topics
We received an unprecedented number of paper and symposium submissions this year, not only from many North American researchers but also from scholars in Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa, representing widespread interest in qualitative methodologies and their expanding presence and influence within psychology and allied fields. Paper sessions and symposia feature many different methodological approaches, including thematic analysis, phenomenology, IPA, discourse analysis, participatory action research (PAR), narrative, interviewing, ethnography, grounded theory, oral history, autoethnography, photovoice and archival research. The program offers innovative perspectives on foundational concepts in qualitative inquiry, such as validity, causation, consensus, representation, and the rhetoric of research writing. Many symposia and papers also highlight the permeable boundaries between qualitative inquiry and recent developments in postcolonial, decolonial, feminist and critical race theories and methods.
Several symposia and papers focus on the distinctive challenges and opportunities associated with teaching and learning to do qualitative inquiry. These presentations include a plenary session in which advanced doctoral students studying individuals and communities in the Boston area reflect on the role of reflexivity, positionality, and other issues encountered when the researcher has membership or experiences in common with those whose experiences they seek to understand.
Pre-Conference Workshop
An optional pre-conference workshop will be offered on the afternoon of Sunday, June 9, for a nominal fee. This year, we are delighted to host a workshop led by Heidi Levitt, PhD, professor of psychology at University of Massachusetts Boston: “Methodological integrity in qualitative research: Strengthening the design of your study and your communication with reviewers.”
This four-hour workshop provides an overview of the concept of methodological integrity that was put forward by a SQIP task force to guide the process of research designs and journal review and adopted by the APA reporting standards. The workshop will guide you to use this perspective to strengthen your qualitative research designs, across methods, and to tailor procedures to your question, goals, and approaches to inquiry. Also, you will learn how to use this concept to communicate with reviewers and craft arguments to support your methods within the journal review process.
Register for the Conference
You can register onlineopens in new window or just follow the link posted on our websiteopens in new window.
Housing
This year, we are pleased to be able to offer a limited amount of on-campus housing for conference attendees at a reduced cost. If you would like to take advantage of this opportunity, we encourage you to reserve a room before they fill up. You can do so on the conference registration page.
Contact Us
For more information about the conference, registration or logistics, please visit the conference websiteopens in new window or email us with questions.
We look forward to seeing you in June!