26-MQL-A Advanced Qualitative research: Positionality, relationality and consequentiality

Dates: 18 March 2026, and one day t.b.d. in April 2026
on the UU-campus – with one of more (online) subgroup meetings in between

Organizers: dr. Zehra Colak and dr. Larike Bronkhorst (Utrecht University)

Departing from an interpretative paradigm and socio-cultural and critical theories, this course will address key issues in qualitative research, that is research with people and other beings.

As facilitators, the teachers of this course intend to engage with participants in meaningful dialogues about:

• their own positionality, including intersectionality, privilege and power dynamics and emotions;
• the relationality with participants: research with others, instead of on or about them; and
• consequentiality of research design choices, highlighting our responsibility as scholars to consider whose voices are echoed, but also possible creativity during and after the research to do things differently.  

This course will introduce you to a variety of (critical) perspectives on research from a qualitative paradigm, connecting the experience of conducting research to theory conceptualising the power relations and obligations that shape the data and your subsequent analysis of it. You will be asked to read and critically engage with texts on the above topics, and reflect on these topics in relation to your own research experiences in preparation for meetings.

This course is aimed at PhD researchers who have experience in research from a qualitative paradigm and would like to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the literature they draw on to explain methodological decisions and fieldwork experiences.

As we aim for emergent co-design of education, with the responsibility for teaching and learning shared among all participating in the course, participants should not expect ‘the’ answers from the teachers. Instead, we aim for informed dialogues, wherein different perspectives are regarded and considered in terms of their practical consequences. For this to work, all participants need to have experience and affinity with qualitative research in the paradigmatic sense, as evidenced by having completed a research cycle in the form of a completed article. Upon registering, you will be asked to send in an example.