*(Please read/listen to the narrated version or do both based on whatever you prefer)!

Sam Browning, Geography & Environment, University of Liverpool (2024 cohort)

I have recently attended a summer school course on ‘Creative Approaches to Qualitative Research‘ at the University of Manchester. Methods@Manchester launched the course in March 2025, and I had been waiting eagerly to attend at the end of June / start of July. Below, you will find some of my reflections on attending and why I strongly recommend the course to anyone interested in discovering more about creative approaches to qualitative research.

Led by a team of enthusiastic academics from the Morgan Centre (Manchester), the three-day course offered all attendees an immersive learning space for mastering creative and practical approaches to social science methods and techniques. All sessions covered the following: Creative forms of analysis (free-style writing), sensory and object elicitation techniques, embodied-sensory methods, facet methodology, and zine making. All activities allowed us as active participants to operate outside of traditional rigid boundaries and experience new knowledge and perspectives that could be generated by doing qualitative research creatively. Additionally, the course leads organised two social events, including a pub night and a guided walking tour of Manchester – both made for entertaining evenings. It was also great to meet so many people on other summer school courses.

Morgan Centre scholars organised each session around their respective areas of research expertise, and everyone offered compelling insights into the complex, equally rewarding nature of designing, collecting and interpreting data from creative research. We undertook activities through small-group-based learning (a merit of taking this course) to eradicate some of the challenges of doing research differently by thinking outside the box to formulate alternative, richer findings and ways of disseminating information (to academic and non-academic audiences). The whole course was successfully orientated around collaborative teaching and learning. I was taught effectively how to assemble creative approaches to research within and beyond human geography (my discipline space), dipping into cultural studies, history, linguistics, the political sciences, and much more. Session leads offered live group feedback throughout to clear up gaps in knowledge and understanding, especially around areas for discussion such as, validity and links to theoretical frameworks.

Each session allowed appropriate time for listening, doing, reflecting and asking thought-provoking questions. A diverse range of scholarly perspectives was integrated into the programme, offering a continuous space for inclusivity and reflexivity – especially where/when research has excluded the knowledge and contributions of Global Majority groups in traditional academia. Unique methodologies, epistemologies, and ontologies underscore the goal of the course and its purpose of attracting a diverse scholarly audience from across and beyond the social sciences.

Attending the course has significantly propelled my academic journey into creative methods and approaches. Offering new toolkits, perspectives and networking connections with individuals committed to thinking creatively to transform what we could know and how we could see the social world from alternative methodological standpoints. For me, the summer school course provided a space for initiating critical conversations on creative research. I strongly recommend attending next year if you are interested in the same area and/or from a social science background.