BU Research Blog

You are warmly welcomed to the next research process seminar.

Visually informed, (critical) discursive psychology for analysing visual materials in online contexts

In this talk, we discuss and illustrate a methodological approach for studying the ways in which visual, online materials (e.g., Instagram posts) serve as contemporary sites for constructing and maintaining social life. Specifically, we present a visually informed approach to critical discursive psychology, offering an emergent perspective on how visual materials might be analysed to deepen our understanding of key psychological concepts. By integrating the visual into discursive psychology theory, we consider “visual discourse” and “visual interpretative repertoires” as key analytic concepts when interpreting visual, online materials. Drawing upon a study of gender performance in images posted on Instagram, we walk participants through the process of collecting visual materials, conducting analyses of visual content, and making sense of visual interpretative repertoires. In this, we discuss some of the unique challenges and opportunities that can arise when studying visual materials using this approach.

The speakers:

Jessica Nina Lester is a Professor of Qualitative Methodology at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA. She is a qualitative methodologist and interdisciplinary researcher who publishes in areas related to qualitative method/ology, with a particular focus on discourse and conversation analysis methods, digital tools/spaces in qualitative research, and disability in critical qualitative inquiry. Most recently, she co-authored the book, Doing Qualitative Research in a Digital World (Sage, 2022), and co-edited the volume, Centering Diverse Bodyminds in Critical Qualitative Inquiry (Routledge, 2021).

Dr. Keiko M. McCullough is an assistant professor of Counseling Psychology in the Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver. Dr. McCullough publishes in areas related to method/ology, media studies, and psychology, with an interest in uncovering how psychological constructs are produced and maintained in media (and other visual domains) in connection to systems of inequality.

About the research process seminar series:

The purpose of this research seminar series is different to your typical research seminar and conference presentation. Instead of presenting the resultsand outcomes of research, we want to share good practices around the process of doing research. This might often involve a focus on research methods but it also includes aspects of publishing, writing, time management, career management etc.

The idea here is that the speaker takes us through the anatomy of the project or approach focussing particularly on the process – the challenges, thesuccesses, and the failures. For the audience, we walk away with a practical application of a method or approach we may not be familiar with or may not have applied in this way before. Our ambition is to make us all better researchers as a result.

10 December 2pm – 3pm on Zoom

Register in advance for the meeting:

https://bournemouth-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMvcuqpqzIsE90LOUN7U1RNOi9UVYDgKMDP

And if you can’t make it but want the recording, please register.