[From the Archives] Ep 141: Dr. Gail Crimmins on Arts-informed Research

Research in Action | A podcast for faculty & higher education professionals on research design, methods, productivity & more

On this episode, Katie is joined by Dr. Gail Crimmins, who initially trained as a performer and worked as a performer, director and casting director in theatre, television and film in the UK for almost 10 years. She subsequently taught Drama and Performance at universities and conservatoires before moving to Australia in 2008. Gail undertook her PhD study (an arts-informed narrative inquiry into the lived experience of women casual academics) alongside part-time teaching and fully committed mothering. She currently works as a Lecturer of Communication, coordinates a series of Communication Programs, and is the First Year Experience Lead for the School of Communication and Creative Industries, at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. She undertakes arts-informed, narrative and auto-ethnographic research, predominantly though not exclusively, exploring the lived experience of women academics. Gail is a feminist researcher who seeks to illuminate the impacts of patriarchal structures on women’s lives and explore ways for women’s stories and voices to be heard.

Segment 1: Arts-informed Research [00:00-16:38]

In this first segment, Gail shares about how she got started with arts-informed research.

In this segment, the following resources are mentioned:

• Cahnmann, M. (2006). Reading, living, and writing bilingual poetry as scholARTistry in the language arts classroom. Language Arts, 83(4), 342.
• Cole, A. L., & Knowles, G. J. (2008). Arts-informed research. In G. J. Knowles & A. L. Cole (Eds.) Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research. Perspectives methodologies, examples and issues (pp. 55-70). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
• Nielsen, L. (2000). Academy performances, academy rewards. Teacher Education Quarterly, 27(2), 163-170.
• Nielsen, L. (2002). Learning from the liminal: Fiction as knowledge. Alberta Journal of Education Research 48(3), 206-214.
• Sikes, P. & Gale, K. (2006). Narrative Approaches to Education Research. Plymouth: University of Plymouth.

Segment 2: Examples of Arts-informed Research [16:39-37:37]

In segment two, Gail offers examples of her own work with arts-informed research.

In this segment, the following resources are mentioned:

• Books:
  • Cole, A. L., & Knowles, G. J. (2008). Arts-informed research. In G. J. Knowles & A. L. Cole (Eds.) Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research. Perspectives methodologies, examples and issues (pp. 55-70). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
  • Gee, J. P. (1990). Social linguistics and literacies (1st ed.). London, UK: Falmer Press.
  • Gee, J. P. (2005). An introduction to discourse analysis theory and method (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.

• Articles:
  • Ewing, R., & Hughes, J. (2008). Arts-informed inquiry in teacher education: contesting the myths. European Education Research Journal, 7(4), 512–522. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/eerj.2008.7.4.512
  • Gee, J. P. (1985). The narrativization of experience in the oral style. Journal of Education, 167(1): 9-35.
  • Gee, J. P. (1991). A linguistic approach to narrative. Journal of Narrative and Life History 1(1):15-39.
  • MacLure, M. (2013). The wonder of data. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 13(4), 228–232.
  • Ringrose, J. & Renold, E. (2014). ‘F**K Rape!’: Exploring affective intensities in a feminist research assemblage. Qualitative Inquiry 20 (6): 772–780.
  • Sikes, P. & Gale, K. (2006). Narrative Approaches to Education Research. Plymouth: University of Plymouth.

• Resources authored by Dr. Gail Crimmins:
  • Crimmins, G. (2018). Theatricalising narrative research on women casual academics. Palgrave studies in gender and education. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave
  • Crimmins, G. (2017). An emotional, physical and humanistic response to performed data. TEXT Special Issue, 38, 1-13. Retrieved from http://www.textjournal.com.au/speciss/issue38/Crimmins.pdf
  • Crimmins, G. (2017). How an audience of scholars’ evaluated arts informed communication and verbatim theatre as media through which to communicate academic research. Applied Theatre Research.

• Connect with Dr. Gail Crimmins: [email protected]

Bonus Clip #1 [00:00-04:21]: Benefits of Arts-informed Research

In this bonus clip, the following resource is mentioned:

• Carrigan, M. (2017, May 8). An interview with Patricia Leavy about research design in contemporary times. The Socialogical Imagination. Retrieved from http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/19315

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The views expressed by guests on the Research in Action podcast do not necessarily represent the views of Oregon State University Ecampus or Oregon State University.