My commentary article has now been published and is open access:

My commentary article has now been published and is open access:

We're about halfway booked now - join us in August at @kingsioppn.bsky.social for a thorough introduction to #QualitativeResearch #ResearchMethods @bethlehem.bsky.social @sianoram.bsky.social @hannakienzler.bsky.social @kingscsmh.bsky.social @ucl-qhrn.bsky.social www.kcl.ac.uk/professional...

An Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods | King's College London

The 5-day, in-person course aims to provide attendees with an understanding of the purpose and appropriate use of qualitative research methods.

kcl.ac.uk

Qualitative Applied Health Research Centre@quahrc.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Our popular #QualitativeResearch summer school is open for bookings! Join us in person in south London this August to open up the world of qualitative research www.kcl.ac.uk/professional...

“Positivism Creep” “The subtle, often unacknowledged infiltration of positivist or post-positivist assumptions into methodologies where they do not naturally, philosophically, practically, or epistemologically belong.” By @thomasgraves.bsky.social @maddipow.bsky.social @annayahprosser.bsky.social

Dr Madeleine Pownall@maddipow.bsky.social · 8mo ago

New preprint with Thomas Graves and @annayahprosser.bsky.social: "Getting Creeped Out? Open Science, Qualitative Methods, and the Dangers of Positivism Creep". osf.io/preprints/so...

I did a blog post for NCRM - Should qualitative researchers be using GenAI? I’ve used LLMs but in-depth analytic engagement is a creative joy of quali research

NCRM News | Qualitative research and generative AI: reflections on an NCRM seminar

Should qualitative researchers be using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)? Recently, more than 400 internationally renowned qualitative researchers co-signed a commentary rejecting GenAI for

ncrm.ac.uk

Are you worried about the devastating cuts we are seeing to arts, humanities & social sciences in UK universities? Last call for my lecture in Leicester this Thurs 27th Nov on the value of these subjects and how they support UK security, cohesion and prosperity www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shaping-a-...

Shaping a Brighter Future

The first event in our Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Lecture Series, delivered by Hetan Shah, Chief Executive, The British Academy

eventbrite.co.uk

Come and join us to discuss the whys and wherefores, joys and torture of writing - in solidarity, in relations with participants, in neoliberal academia. We have a panel, snacks, and time for everybody to take part in the conversation Bush House KCL, 4 Nov 2-5pm

LSE Methodology@lsemethodology.bsky.social · 10mo ago

👩‍🏫 Why do we write? Writing (together) in participatory research projects - why, for whom and how? @floracornish.bsky.social is a panellist at @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social workshop on 4 Nov, and colleagues and PhD students are invited to join 👉 www.kcl.ac.uk/events/why-d...

🎤 Proposals for our Centre for Qualitative Research, University of Bath Qualitative Research Symposium at University of Bath School of Management are open until November 7th! Find out more and submit your talk, symposium and workshop abstracts here: www.bath.ac.uk/events/quali... #qualitative

Certified organic and AI-free: New stamp for human-written books launches www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

Certified organic and AI-free: New stamp for human-written books launches

As machine-made books flood online marketplaces, a new UK initiative is introducing an Organic Literature stamp to help readers identify books created by real authors

theguardian.com

hybrid conferences should be the norm, not the exception.

With yet another university hosted event closed to 'non academics' (aka those not employed by a university)* I'm just going to leave this piece by @drhelenkara.bsky.social and myself here blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci... * yes I know it's utter nonsense and academics/researchers exist outside unis

Institutional affiliation should not be a requirement for doing research - Impact of Social Sciences

Universities espouse a universalist approach to creating research-based knowledge. Helen Kara & Petra Boynton argue, from the outside these claims are hollow.

blogs.lse.ac.uk

New open access paper by me and @ginnybraun.bsky.social - Exploring U.K. University Students’ Social Perceptions of Dating and Physical Disability Using Story Completion. There are extensive Supplementary Materials which we hope are useful for teaching reflexive TA: awspntest.apa.org/fulltext/202...

Melissa McCallum's important research using qualitative surveys, interviews, focus groups & reflexive thematic analysis (supervised by me) - Exploring Black Women's Experiences in Psychotherapeutic Training and Practice in the UK - Counselling and Psychotherapy Research share.google/QAahdyVCLjtV...

Exploring Black Women's Experiences in Psychotherapeutic Training and Practice in the UK

Background Discussions around racial disparities and injustice have gained increasing prominence in psychotherapy and counselling research. However, research in this area has been criticised for its.....

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👀 ICYMI: "While 92% of undergraduate students are using Generative AI, only 36% said they had been offered support by their university" #AcademicSky #HigherEducation

A new academic year has begun, but UK universities are still struggling to respond to AI - Impact of Social Sciences

Mark Carrigan argues university staff are still struggling to develop coherent, contextual and disciplinary responses to AI’s impact on teaching and learning.

blogs.lse.ac.uk

I think we’re really going to have to do a lot more of this. A massive deprogramming so that people can read more than ten words at a time without anxiety. www.thetimes.com/uk/education...?

Universities teaching literature students how to cope with long novels

Critics blame GCSE English for deterring teenagers from the subject, describing the literature syllabus as boring and repetitive

thetimes.com

Nearly 100 years after her death, Oxford’s first female Indigenous scholar honoured www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Nearly 100 years after her death, Oxford’s first female Indigenous scholar honoured

Mākereti Papakura died weeks before handing in her thesis at Oxford university documenting the life and customs of her tribe, work that is still used by Māori today

theguardian.com

Messy, emotional, and necessary: PhD student and research assistant Jo Law reflects on ethical #QualitativeResearch with marginalised groups in this month's #ResearchImpact blog: www.quahrc.co.uk/podcasts-blo... @kingsioppn.bsky.social @bethlehem.bsky.social

Impact in Qualitative Research: Jo Law on Messy, Emotional and Necessary Ethical Research with Marginalised Populations | QUAHRC

Jo Law is a qualitative research assistant at the Qualitative Applied Health Research Centre at King’s College London, working on the qualitative component of the EDEN project, which examines the use ...

quahrc.co.uk

Long Covid has now overtaken Asthma in the US, as a cause of chronic health disease in children. There is currently no cure. Yet no action is being taken and Violet Affleck is very much on point.

This is an essay, a reading list and a poem on why I think Pan-Africanism, Afrofuturism and Decolonisation can be insightful tools for realising visions of flourishing future worlds for all. folukeafrica.com/pan-africani...

Pan-Africanism, Afrofuturism and Decolonisation: A reading list

Knowledge will be the first frontier of our freedom.

folukeafrica.com

Unequal pressures: new #qualitative work from the QUAHRC team explores how young people from different backgrounds had very different #Covid experiences, and why this is still relevant to widening inequality www.kcl.ac.uk/how-disadvan...

Unequal pressures: how disadvantage shaped young people's education…

School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t just disrupt learning, they revealed and intensified deep inequalities that continue to shape young people’s lives today. While some children…

kcl.ac.uk

"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits." www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws

In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...

computerworld.com

How do researchers study experiences that are "too shattering to put into words"? MAshNup method uses art-making, metaphor analysis, and narrative techniques to help participants explore difficult experiences in ethical, sensitive ways. Read the article here: doi.org/10.1332/3050...

Inside the world of Kenya’s ‘shadow scholars’ paid to write essays for UK students www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Inside the world of Kenya’s ‘shadow scholars’ paid to write essays for UK students

Highly educated Kenyans working for essay mills ghostwrite academic work that students pass off as their own

theguardian.com

I have always hated the way smart speakers and chatbots mimic amicability and draw people in to talking to them as if there is a person there. Great to read a scholarly exploration, using dear old Gigerenzer and Grice to set out the problem 🌟

LSE Impact@lseimpactblog.bsky.social · 11mo ago

💥New: ChatGPT doesn’t think like a human, so why does it speak like one? ✍️George Gaskell (@lsemethodology.bsky.social) #ChatGPT #Ethics #ConversationAnalysis

"In 2019, Iceland made headlines as one of the first countries to implement a four-day workweek...Nearly six years later, the results are clear: this bold move has proven to be a game-changer, not just for the workforce, but for society as a whole." www.wecb.fm/iceland-embr...

Iceland Embraced a 4-Day Workweek in 2019 – Now, Nearly Six Years On, All Gen Z Forecasts Have Materialized

In 2019, Iceland made headlines as one of the first countries to implement a four-day workweek, not by passing a blanket law, but through agreements

wecb.fm

Are you, might you become, or do you know a transnational scholar from the Global South? Or do you work with one or more? If so, this insightful, creatively written book will be of interest. It's part of the series I co-edit with @patthomson.bsky.social www.routledge.com/Insider-Guid...

Call for chapters: Ethical Review in Practice, edited by Lucy Pickering and me. Do you have a particularly good, bad, or mixed experience with a research #ethics approval body that you would like to share? If so this call may be of interest: helenkara.com/writing/ethi... please share widely!

Ethical Review in Practice

Call for Chapter Proposals Working title: Ethical Review in Practice Editors: Lucy Pickering and Helen Kara Research ethics approval is a key part of the process for many researchers. The small but…

helenkara.com