QRM 2025 PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

We are excited to offer the four pre-conference workshops listed below. The workshops will run on April 15, 2025. The workshops are free, but please pre-register at qrmconf@gmail.com by April 4, 2025 so we can provide a list of attendees to the workshop presenters.

 MAsh-N-up As Method:

A GESTALT QUALITATIVE WORKSHOP USING METAPHOR, ARTS-BASED RESEARCH, AND NARRATIVE ANALYSIS

Sarah J. Tracy
Arizona State University, USA

Cary L.S. López
Independent Scholar
1:30 to 4:30 p.m.

This workshop provides a rationale, step-by-step process, and illustration of a playful qualitative method that provides deep reflection and understanding of the ways that people are viewing, narrating, and feeling a specific aspect of their experience. We call this iterative and multi-sensory approach MAsh-N-up, with the word itself indicating the gestalt nature as a “mash-up”, as well as highlighting via capitalization the key elements of Metaphor, Art, and Narrative. MAsh-N-up serves a variety of purposes across scholarly, pedagogical, and professional venues, but it is especially useful among groups of people making sense of situations or experiences that are difficult to articulate via typical text-based question-answer interviews. This difficulty in articulation may be due to the experience being traumatic, ambiguous, or yet-to-be named. The workshop describes Mash-N-up’s methodological and paradigmatic roots, overviews its key elements, and leads participants through the step-by-step process. Along the way, we provide visuals as well as an action worksheet that participants can use in their own research.

Bios

Dr. Sarah J. Tracy is School Director and Professor of organizational communication and qualitative methodology of The Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University. She is a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association, Distinguished Teacher of the Western States Communication Association, and Co-Founder of The Transformation Project, a consortium of faculty, students, and community members who seek to discover and promote creative change processes that encourage healthy communication patterns, collaborative group behavior, and equitable forms of social organization. Her scholarly work examines emotion, communication, and identity in the workplace with focus on emotional labor, compassion, bullying, and organizational flourishing. She is an interdisciplinary leader in qualitative research methods. She founded the YouTube channel Get Your Qual On and her award-winning research has resulted in two books including Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact by Wiley, with a third edition coming soon.

Dr. Cary J.S. López is an organizational transformation expert and facilitator who utilizes a variety of human-centered frameworks and approaches. She has a veritable alphabet soup of credentials, including being one of the first 500 Certified Change Management Practitioners (CCMP), LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Certified Facilitator, Project Management Professional (PMP), and more. Cary has helped organizations of all shapes and sizes develop meaningful identities, missions, and visions, culminating in powerful strategies to move forward. Her dissertation research focused on the co-creation of hope in teams, emphasizing the importance of fostering positive and purpose-driven environments. As a pracademic, Cary combines extensive experience in management consulting, HR, and team collaboration with a passion for qualitative research to help organizations and leaders craft strategies to enhance human flourishing in their work and lives.