A day in the Arts in Qualitative Research

May 16 2012

In the last few decades, the different disciplines of arts education and arts therapies have witnessed a boom in qualitative inquiry and have generated exciting methodological developments. We now invite arts educators, therapists, and researchers in music, the visual arts, dance, drama, media, and poetry, to join us for a Day in the arts, in relation to the 8th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (QI2012). The Day in the arts is a full-day event that will take place on Wednesday, May 16, 2012 - one day before the beginning of QI 2011. Presentations of research in arts education and therapy will also take place through the rest of the conference.

This is call for researchers, scholars, practitioners and students to present their qualitative inquiry in the arts , and how to expand our knowledge about arts education and therapy as well as the arts as a vibrant vehicle for qualitative inquiry.

Themes: Within the individual arts disciplines -- music, visual arts, dance, drama, poetry, and media--, crossing borders is manifested in the juxtaposition of artistic genres and styles, as well as in our conceptualizations of knowledge, expanding the intellectual and artistic communities of scholarship and practice. Disciplines, just like the concept of art, are open-ended entities: in order to exist, a discipline needs boundaries. At the same time, to maintain its vibrancy and cutting-edge quality, it needs to be able to extend these boundaries, to venture into new territories. Research methodologies are one important manifestation of cross-disciplines.

In the late 50s, 60s and 70s, in the post-Sputnik era, music and art education turned to philosophy to provide arguments articulating a broad educational role of the arts. In establishing cognition as fundamental for the arts, psychology, too, provided useful support. The change of the research culture as part of the post-modern paradigm has also affected research in arts education and therapy. From the 1980 on we note a framing of the arts within broad socio-cultural ideas and context in ways that further expand the theory and practice of the arts. Anthropological and sociological perspectives view the arts as reflecting a society and what it values, serving as social and political tools. Arts-based inquiry and performances highlight new foci and open the field to new forms of representations.

Delegates are asked to submit an original abstract (200 words including references) suitable for one of the following topics within any of the art forms and disciplines:

• Qualitative research and Interdisciplinarity
• Creativity and improvisation
• Research education
• Arts based inquiry and performing qualitative research
• Arts in education
• Arts in therapy, health promotion, and community development
• Sound, silence, and cultural sensitivity in qualitative research
• The nexus of the arts, culture, and the self

In addition to individual presentations and symposia, the day of the arts will include a keynote, paper presentations and symposia, performance/presentations by leading artists, and informal conversations with leading scholars in the field.

If you have questions about the event, please contact Liora Bresler (liora@illinois.edu)