The Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology Virtual Salons

The current pandemic has encouraged much creative rethinking of our usual rituals and traditions, including the tradition of the annual academic conference. How do we scholars maintain a sense of community and connection when we can’t gather together in person? 

The Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology (SQIP) Virtual Salons were designed to create such a space. These monthly events, each organized around a topic of significant interest within qualitative inquiry, feature paper presentations, Q&A, and audience discussion. Free and open to the public, they attract a wide range of attendees from all over the world, working in many different fields and at many different stages of their careers.

What does generalization mean in qualitative research? How do doctoral students cultivate the critical psychopolitical sensibility to address social inequities and power differentials in their research, practice, and training? How are the burdens and benefits of caregiving shaped by social policy? How can researchers bear witness to a migration crisis whose magnitude and global reach spans borders and communities? Through engagement with these and other pressing questions, the participants in the SQIP Virtual Salons build community around the centrality and power of method. All events are video recorded and available for viewing on the SQIP website. Along with the Distinguished Researcher Interview Series, these videos can be a valuable resource for teaching. 

The events are hosted on Crowdcastopens in new window, a platform more typically associated with jazz concerts and poetry readings than academic meetings. Its design style keeps the focus on presenters while allowing space for mingling and chat. At any given salon, you’re likely to see audience members greet each other warmly, cheer on presenters who have made a particularly keen point, and even dig into debates about epistemology.

But at the heart of the salons are the presenters themselves. Speakers were selected from among the submissions that had been accepted for the 2020 SQIP conference prior to its cancellation. Ranging from senior scholars and longtime SQIP luminaries to up-and-coming graduate and undergraduate student contributors, the presenters bring perspectives from across a range of disciplines including philosophy, counseling, education, and anthropology as well as many branches of psychology: discursive psychology, clinical psychology, social psychology, narrative psychology, health psychology, and developmental psychology, among others.

As of now, the salons are only scheduled through February; however, the SQIP executive committee is looking into ways to extend the salon series to a new set of speakers and topics. As we all continue finding ways to stay connected and engaged with each other across distance, the challenges we face also provide opportunities to create more accessible and inclusive scholarly spaces. The salons are open to all; perhaps, they will bring qualitative research methods to a new generation of new audiences. 

Find out more about the Virtual Salons and register onlineopens in new window.

Upcoming events

Toward a New Narrative Personality Health Psychology Training Model

January 18, 7–8:30 p.m. ET

Organizer: Cynthia E. Winston-Proctor

Presenters: Denée Thomas Mwendwa, Cynthia E. Winston-Proctor, Breanna N. Beard, Alexandria L. Frank, and Di’eayyah N. Boney

Using an innovative storytelling approach, this salon is designed to achieve the following:

• introduce a narrative personality health psychology training model that we have developed to launch our new Howard University Narrative Personality Health Psychology Collaborative (NPHPC);
• discuss the theoretical, methodological, and interpersonal knowledge to enter and sustain this kind of training;
• inspire students and faculty to develop innovative apprentice-collaborative qualitative inquiry in psychology training models that simultaneously advance interdisciplinary knowledge and professional career generative growth.