Urbana-Champaign (or Champaign-Urbana)

We arrived yesterday morning at sunny Urbana-Champaign after a pain-free train journey. (Though getting our tickets was entertaining  and involved us being told off like very naughty children. More about that later, time permitting.)

The conference begins today with workshops morning and afternoon, followed by the opening plenary and cook-out. The workshop programme includes sessions by the usual suspects – Norman Denzin, Laurel Richardson, Carolyn Ellis and Art Bochner, Ron Pelias, et al. – and some newer ones, for example by Lisa Mazzei and Alecia Jackson (on at the same time as Ken’s and mine, unfortunately) and Tami Spry. Tami’s is based around her book, Body, Paper, Stage. Lisa and Alecia’s draws from their book, too, which explores how different theoretical approaches (e.g. via Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze, Butler, et al.) can be brought to bear on research ‘data’. Check it out: Thinking with Theory in Qualitative Research. Well worth a read.

Paul Atkinson and Sara Delamont – both from Cardiff – are the keynote speakers at the plenary. They have been critical in the past of the kind of work produced by many at this Congress so it’ll be, erm, interesting to hear what they have to say.

Time to do final preparations for Ken’s and my workshop. An 8.30am start, which is a bit antisocial.

Jonathan