February - May 2019
Home Institution: University of Edinburgh
Jonathan Wyatt, Professor of Qualitative Inquiry
University of Edinburgh
Towards creative-relational inquiry
My research examines the entanglement of ‘self’ and ‘other’ within and beyond the therapeutic encounter. I undertake this research through collaborative writing as a method of inquiry, autoethnography (or, better, 'assemblage/ethnography'), and, latterly, through bringing these together with stand-up comedy. My work connects the dots between collaborative inquiry in the context of research and collaborative inquiry in the context of therapy, searching for – and doubting – the transformative resources in each.
My recent book project extends this methodological work in developing the new concept of ‘creative-relational inquiry’. Therapy, Stand-up, and the Gesture of Writing: Towards Creative-Relational Inquiry (published by Routledge) explores the connections between therapy, stand-up comedy, and writing-as-inquiry, in order for each to act as a provocation for the other; and, together, for them to act as a provocation for theory and methodology.
In October, 2017, we launched the Centre for Creative-Relational Inquiry (CCRI), which fosters situated, context-sensitive, experience-near, embodied, inter-disciplinary qualitative research. The focus of my time at IASH will be to build on both my new book and the vibrant beginnings of CCRI’s life, writing further about creative-relational inquiry and the work the concept might do within qualitative research.