Critical Explorations of Culture: A Qualitative Approach

IACCP 2022’s Pre-Conference METHODOLOGY Workshop

Time and Date:

July 11, Monday

UTC 12:00- UTC 16:00 (four hours)

Workshop Title:

Critical Explorations of Culture: A Qualitative Approach

Teacher:

Kumar Ravi Priya, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India

Abstract:

Exclusion and marginalization of various sections of human society, such as, women, African Americans, gays and lesbians, and the erstwhile colonized have given impetus to the need for utilizing qualitative methodology in studies involving culture-psychology interface since 1960s. Culture entails shared meaning systems shaped within the hierarchies of race, gender, religion, ethnicity, class etc. Various critical perspectives including decolonization approach, postcolonial theory, critical theory paradigm, social constructionism and postmodernism have not only pointed to the denial of voice to these sections, but have accentuated the need to recover and center the silenced or unheard human voices. The history of qualitative psychology/social science highlights the immense potential qualitative methodology has to reconstruct everyday life experiences of people within their cultural contexts.

This workshop is an invitation to co-learners to have a first-hand experience of: (a) understanding the nature of “qualitative data”, (b) building research relationship that has the potential to provide a humanizing space to the participants, (c) analyzing qualitative data (coding and memo writing), and (d) establishing scientific rigour of the findings. The scope of the workshop is that the participants will learn along with other participants the experiential and theoretical preparation, methodological procedures as well as application of qualitative research. The workshop will involve activities and interactions based on participants’ reflections on relational and cultural experiences of everyday life. Some probes for reflections will be given to the participants prior to the workshop. Research scholars and faculty members who are, or wish to be, involved in research, teaching or evaluation associated with qualitative methodology will be the most suited for this workshop.

Bio-Sketch:

Dr. Kumar Ravi Priya is a professor of psychology at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He is a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Fellowship Awardee, 2017-18 for conducting his research at Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut, USA. For two decades, he has been engaging with post-disaster trauma, suffering and healing among the survivors of natural and human-made disasters in India. Five papers published in reputed international journals by his research team on the issues of mental health promotion during Covid-19 have been included in the WHO Database with unique WHO-COVID IDs. He is also the chief editor of a book series titled, “Mental Health Experiences of Vulnerable Groups from Interdisciplinary Perspectives: Critical and Qualitative Approaches” being published from Routledge, UK in 2020-2025. His publications are primarily in the areas of qualitative methodology and disaster mental health.

His research papers are published in the international journals (from American Psychological Association, Sage, Springer, and Taylor & Francis) including, Review of General Psychology, Economic and Political Weekly, The Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, Theory and Psychology, Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, Qualitative Health Research, Qualitative Research, Qualitative Research in Psychology, Psychology and Developing Societies, The Journal of Anthropological Survey of India, and Psychological Studies. He has several chapters in the edited volumes (from Oxford, Palgrave Macmillan, Sage, Springer, Wiley-Blackwell). He has co-edited a book titled, “Qualitative Research on Illness, Wellbeing and Self-Growth: Contemporary Indian Perspective” published in 2015 by Routledge (Taylor & Francis).