Join us at Thinking Qualitatively for four days of lively online learning and connection! Learn from over 20 experts and build your skills and knowledge in qualitative research methods and practice, with a theme this year of making a difference.
You'll grow in your approach to qualitative methods with...
⌯⌲ Diverse Workshops. Choose from 13 topics with interactive, tailored instruction.
⌯⌲ Practical Skill-Builders. Choose from 5 topics to apply new skills with hands-on demonstrations.
⌯⌲ Engaging Knowledge Exchange. Discuss methodological challenges and triumphs in "lightning" presentation sessions.
⌯⌲ Connection and Networking. Drop in for casual mixers, including a film night!
⌯⌲ Recognition of Attendance. Earn your digital badge (certificate).
*NEW* You asked, we listened! This year, workshops are offered at one of two learning levels: introductory or deep-dive.
Ready to register?
Get started in the text box below!
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Thinking Qualitatively (TQ) is an annual event of the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology (IIQM) that aims to advance understanding of qualitative methods among graduate students, academic scholars, and community research practitioners all over the world. At TQ, you'll enhance your foundational qualitative research toolkit, engage with renowned experts in the field, and build a supportive network of like-minded researchers. Researchers and practitioners from any discipline, sector, or career stage are welcome.
Have questions? Check out our FAQs or get in touch at tqevent@ualberta.ca.
Cover image: A colourful orizuru (paper crane) exhibition in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photo credit to Alex Dos Santos.
Why Thinking Qualitatively?
Year after year, our participants describe TQ as...
Great for all experience levels.
An exciting lineup whether you're a graduate student, new to qualitative methods, or a seasoned researcher.
"There are interesting sessions that apply to all levels of experience and skill. The workshops are interactive, and presenters are friendly."
Practical and applicable.
Relevant, useful, and interactive sessions you can immediately apply to your work.
"I LOVE these workshops and presentations. I found them particularly useful when I was a doctoral student. And, even as a faculty member, I learn new things."
"I really enjoyed the variety of speakers and facilitators with different specialties and expertise."
Welcoming and engaging.
Warm and enthusiastic facilitators who are interested in helping participants learn and improve.
"It was very accessible, warm, encouraging, and paid attention to our human-ness. All the sessions were very relevant and useful."
Conscientious.
TQ is a not-for-profit event, and your registration fees go directly towards making it possible. We also strive to support equitable learning opportunities, offering scholarships and keeping ticket costs low compared to similar events.
"Overall, the best atmosphere for new research discovery. Down-to-earth practical tips and mini-group work.
Fantastic, humble people to meet. Come ready to learn."
— past TQ participant
Schedule
Build your tailored schedule with...
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Workshops (choose up to 5).
Hands-on learning with a blend of presentation and interactive, experiential activities. Mix and match introductory and deep-dive workshops in your schedule as suits you. Introductory workshops are recorded; deep-dive workshops are not recorded.
Skill-builders (choose up to 3).
Shorter hands-on skill-building sessions providing a specific tool or technique you can "take home" and use. Not recorded.
Knowledge exchange and socials (automatically included).
Opportunities to interact with other TQ attendees, including engaging lightning presentations and a hosted film night. Not recorded.
To download the schedule overview, click here.
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Your registration covers up to 5 workshops and 3 skill-builders.
To make your choices:
1) Download the schedule at a glance here.
2) Pick your workshops (up to 5) and skill-builders (up to 3).
3) Reserve your choices through the registration system.
4) Check your choices to avoid scheduling conflicts and going over the session limit.
You are automatically registered in all other sessions: opening and closing remarks, listening to lightning presentations, and move night.
Please note: If you book the same workshop twice, book two sessions on the same date/time, or select more than the maximum allowed for each session type, we will remove any extra sessions at our discretion. We recommend booking ASAP as sessions fill quickly.
Intro 1 - Critical-Constructivist Grounded Theory
This session introduces participants to considerations of how to use grounded theory to meet both critical and constructivist research aims and develop a depth of understanding. We will engage in exercises together to demonstrate how these methods lead to insight in how people make meaning in relation to intrapsychic, interpersonal, cultural, and systemic processes.
Deep Dive 1 - Designing Qualitative-led Mixed Methods Research
This course is for researchers who want to adopt a qualitative orientation in their mixed methods research designs and examine its influence on integration planning, execution, and reporting. Designing qualitatively oriented integration procedures within mixed methods research requires specialized skills in addition to leveraging existing qualitative and quantitative researcher expertise.
Participant Background Knowledge Needed: Some understanding of integration as a key distinguishing characteristic of mixed methods research, what a qualitative researcher orientation entails, and an openness to qualitative-led mixed methods discussions
Welcome & Elder Greetings
Lightning Presentations - Session 1
Join us for engaging "lightning presentations" with TQ:MD participants! These 5-minute presentations are designed to kick-start discussion about interesting qualitative methods puzzles, insights, and issues.
Intro 2 - From Codes to Themes
In this thematic analysis workshop, participants explore coding as an optional precursor for categorical theme development with one data set, then analyze a second data set with phenomenological themes. Participants will learn the differences between codes, categories, patterns, and themes; explore transition processes across these kinds of analysis; and examine how AI/ChatGPT can supplement qualitative thematic analysis.
Deep Dive 2A - Getting Started with Critical Discourse Analysis
CDA is an interdisciplinary approach to examining the relationships among language, power, and ideology. Through interactive activities, participants will have an opportunity to practice CDA techniques that can inform future research.
Participant Background Knowledge Needed: Beginner-level familiarity with critical theory and experience with coding qualitative data is sufficient.
Deep Dive 3A - When Words Aren't Enough: Using Participant Art to Deepen Narrative Interviews
When participants create artwork about their experiences, they often reveal embodied knowledge that they struggle to articulate verbally. In this hands-on session, attendees will design generative art prompts, develop interview questions from participant artwork, and practice facilitating unstructured, art-informed conversations.
Participant Background Knowledge Needed: Qualitative interviewing experience; Familiarity with narrative inquiry; Awareness of qualitative research paradigms
Intro 3 - Introduction to Narrative Inquiry: Excavating Stories as a Mode of Social Inquiry
This introductory workshop consists of two sections: Understanding Narrative (a conceptual approach) and Doing Narrative (a hands-on approach). Participants are invited to explore how narrative ways of knowing can deepen reflective, human-centered inquiry and support research that seeks to make a meaningful difference.
Deep Dive 7A - Doing Grounded Theory in Indigenous Research – A “Pathway” to research practice for Indigenous Methodologies
This session will focus on you as the researcher and your positioning within Indigenous research spaces - developing your pathway for research practice that engages Indigenous Methodologies and research agendas. The workshop will cover the core components of constructivist grounded theory and provide the critical linkages for writing theory that is local in context, fits with the situation and works for your co-collaborators, your contexts and Indigenous communities' wellbeing and self-determination goals.
Session participants should have: 1) basic understanding of constructivist grounded theory; 2) come prepared with your key research question; and 3) have some understanding of the need for decolonizing research.
Deep Dive 5A - Thinking postqualitatively
This session will provide an entry point into a different way of thinking research practice: postqualitative inquiry. We will approach the field humbly but fearlessly, using a heightened curiosity to experiment and imagine.
Participant Background Knowledge Needed: Familiarity with the basics of qualitative research. This includes knowing what is an interview and thematic analysis.
Intro 4 - From CBPR to CAR: Unpacking Community Accompliceship for Social Impact
What is research for social impact? What is community accompliceship and how does it look like as an embodied difference and commitment? Join us in this collective knowledge building workshop.
Lightning Presentations - Session 2
Join us for engaging "lightning presentations" with TQ:MD participants! These 5-minute presentations are designed to kick-start discussion about interesting qualitative methods puzzles, insights, and issues.
Deep Dive 4 - The Heart of Qualitative Research: Living and Applying Relational Ethics
Relational ethics is at the heart of qualitative research, but what does this concept mean, and how does it come to life in practice? Through interactive, reflective, and collaborative activities, the workshop unpacks the key dimensions of relational ethics through a narrative lens on marginalized and vulnerable communities. Participants will learn to apply relational ethics across all phases of the research process.
Participant Background Knowledge Needed: Openness to vulnerability, reflection, and relational engagement – Participants should be prepared to engage in self-reflective activities alongside others, including sharing of narrative beginnings shaping their research puzzles (this will be discussed and explored during the workshop).
Deep Dive 6A - Storyworlding: Extra/ordinary Feminist Methodologies
What if research could feel like entering a living story and creating a shared world? Join us to explore storyworlding—a practice that transforms feminist methodology into collaborative world-making. Learn how love, care, and storying can shape research that honors participants’ voices and builds shared meaning.
Participant Helpful Background Knowledge: Basic knowledge of conducting interviews, especially in narrative and/or ethnographic studies. Basic understanding of feminist research methods, and research interest/motivation in advancing gender equity as well as social justice.
Movie Night and Social (Hybrid In-Person/Online)
Deep Dive 5B - Thinking postqualitatively
This session will provide an entry point into a different way of thinking research practice: postqualitative inquiry. We will approach the field humbly but fearlessly, using a heightened curiosity to experiment and imagine.
Participant Background Knowledge Needed: Familiarity with the basics of qualitative research. This includes knowing what is an interview and thematic analysis.
Skill-Builder 1 - Qualitative data in action: Informing policy with lived expertise
This skill-builder session shows how data gathered through stories, interviews, and lived experiences can be transformed into clear and compelling public policy messages and ideas. Through case study examples and hands on activities, participants will work on mapping qualitative data onto policies and policy statements to ensure policy recommendations are grounded in qualitative evidence and relational accountability.
Deep Dive 2B - Getting Started with Critical Discourse Analysis
CDA is an interdisciplinary approach to examining the relationships among language, power, and ideology. Through interactive activities, participants will have an opportunity to practice CDA techniques that can inform future research.
Participant Background Knowledge Needed: Beginner-level familiarity with critical theory and experience with coding qualitative data is sufficient.
Skill-Builder 2 - Creating Qualitative Visualizations for Social Impact
Visuals are essential for sharing knowledge and spurring social impact, and visualizing qualitative data is a skill anyone can learn. During this session, attendees will learn about the process of creating qualitative data visualizations and have the opportunity to engage in hands-on practice.
Lightning Presentations - Session 3
Join us for engaging "lightning presentations" with TQ:MD participants! These 5-minute presentations are designed to kick-start discussion about interesting qualitative methods puzzles, insights, and issues.
Deep Dive 8A - Transforming realities through co-design and participatory approaches
Drawing from our experiences co-designing research in rural and indigenous communities in Central and South America, this workshop will offer opportunities to rethink ways that ensure community participation and decision-making in education co-design partnerships. Participants will engage with ethical and relational practices that leverage community knowledges in co-designing educational materials.
Participant Background Knowledge Needed: Basic understanding of Participatory and community-based methodologies.
Deep Dive 9 - Publishing
Skill-Builder 4 - Cite Black Women: A Critical Praxis
Through the lens of the Cite Black Women movement, this skill-builder examines the politics of knowledge production and citation biases. Building awareness of the inequality in citation practices and its disproportionate impact on Black women, participants will learn practical steps in overcoming citational bias in research, writing, and beyond.
Deep Dive 7B - Doing Grounded Theory in Indigenous Research – A “Pathway” to research practice for Indigenous Methodologies
This session will focus on you as the researcher and your positioning within Indigenous research spaces - developing your pathway for research practice that engages Indigenous Methodologies and research agendas. The workshop will cover the core components of constructivist grounded theory and provide the critical linkages for writing theory that is local in context, fits with the situation and works for your co-collaborators, your contexts and Indigenous communities' wellbeing and self-determination goals.
Session participants should have: 1) basic understanding of constructivist grounded theory; 2) come prepared with your key research question; and 3) have some understanding of the need for decolonizing research.
Deep Dive 6B - Storyworlding: Extra/ordinary Feminist Methodologies
What if research could feel like entering a living story and creating a shared world? Join us to explore storyworlding—a practice that transforms feminist methodology into collaborative world-making. Learn how love, care, and storying can shape research that honors participants’ voices and builds shared meaning.
Participant Helpful Background Knowledge: Basic knowledge of conducting interviews, especially in narrative and/or ethnographic studies. Basic understanding of feminist research methods, and research interest/motivation in advancing gender equity as well as social justice.
Skill-Builder 5 - Photovoice
Deep Dive 3B - When Words Aren't Enough: Using Participant Art to Deepen Narrative Interviews
When participants create artwork about their experiences, they often reveal embodied knowledge that they struggle to articulate verbally. In this hands-on session, attendees will design generative art prompts, develop interview questions from participant artwork, and practice facilitating unstructured, art-informed conversations.
Participant Background Knowledge Needed: Qualitative interviewing experience; Familiarity with narrative inquiry; Awareness of qualitative research paradigms
Deep Dive 8B - Transforming realities through co-design and participatory approaches
Drawing from our experiences co-designing research in rural and indigenous communities in Central and South America, this workshop will offer opportunities to rethink ways that ensure community participation and decision-making in education co-design partnerships. Participants will engage with ethical and relational practices that leverage community knowledges in co-designing educational materials.
Participant Background Knowledge Needed: Basic understanding of Participatory and community-based methodologies.
Skill-Builder 3 - Communicating qualitative research with Quirkos: Making a difference
The qualitative analysis software Quirkos takes a straightforward, visual approach to helping researchers code and manage small but rich qualitative data sets. Participants will receive an introduction and basic training in this simple tool, with a focus on structuring qualitative data to purposefully explore relationships between participants.
Lightning Presentations - Session 4
Join us for engaging "lightning presentations" with TQ:MD participants! These 5-minute presentations are designed to kick-start discussion about interesting qualitative methods puzzles, insights, and issues.
Facilitators
Amanda Buchnea
Research Fellow, Wilfrid Laurier University &, PhD Candidate, University of Guelph
Amanda Buchnea (she/her)'s mixed methods research and practice advance housing justice through critical community-engaged scholarship and policymaking. Over the last decade, Amanda has worked within the movement to prevent youth homelessness in Canada and internationally. This work has connected her with a network of advocates, lived experts, practitioners, researchers and policymakers in the field.
Amie Presley
Senior Researcher, Toronto District School Board &, PhD Student, University of Guelph
In her current work, Amie leads and supports policy and program reviews, consultations, and large-scale data initiatives, with a core focus in designing and facilitating consultation processes that center student, family, and community perspectives. In the context of growing calls for youth participation, her research explores pathways for integrating student voice into public education policies.
Ayan Caterial Sanchez
PhD Candidate, School of Public Health, University of Alberta
Trustee and Research Partner, Cordillera Women's Education Action Research Center; Knowledge Management for Social Impact Partner, Edmonton Social Planning Council
My name is Ayan (she/they) and I am an Indigenous woman, visual artist, and community worker. I worked with equity deserving groups in the Philippines for more than 15 years focusing on health social research and service equity promotion prior to my move in Edmonton in 2019 as an uninvited guest.
Cheryl Poth, PhD
Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta
Dr. Cheryl Poth teaches and supervises graduate students in mixed methods, program evaluation, qualitative research, classroom assessment, and health sciences education. She is the associate editor of the Journal of Mixed Methods Research.
Dr. Christen A. Smith
Associate Professor, Yale University
Dr. Christen A. Smith is founder of the Cite Black Women Collective. What started as a campaign in 2017 has since grown internationally across several media platforms. She is author, co-author, and editor of several books.
Dr. Daisy E. Guzman-Nuñez
Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Dr. Daisy E. Guzman Nuñez is a Garifuna American scholar from the South Bronx. As a transdisciplinary Black Studies Scholar, her teaching and research interests are on Hemispheric Blackness, Black Feminist Ethnographies and Oral histories, and Black Indigenous Feminisms.
Dr. Daniel Turner
Director, Quirkos
After 10 years in qualitative health academia, Daniel Turner left to create Quirkos and design accessible and affordable software for qualitative analysis. He leads Quirkos development and runs training on software, qualitative approaches, and participatory analysis.
Dr. Erica L. Williams
Professor, Spelman College, & Cite Black Women Collective Member
Erica L. Williams is Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Spelman College, as well as the author of several books. She has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Cultural and Social Anthropology from Stanford University, and a B.A. in Anthropology and Africana Studies from New York University.
The Feminist Research Collective (FRC)
Research Collective, Feminist researchers and activists
Through the WomenWeLove Project, we begin with conversations with women we know deeply through families, neighborhoods, and shared life experiences. Through stories, images, recipes, and songs, we explore lives with love as a guiding ideal. With and for participants, we communicate their experiences so others can imaginatively step into their shoes. We theorize our feminist methodological approach as storyworlding, amplifying women's voices, engendering counter-mapping and counter-narratives, and practicing research with care.
Heidi M. Levitt, Ph.D.
Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston &, Editor-in-Chief, Qualitative Psychology
As past-president of the Society of Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology, Heidi M. Levitt, Ph.D. (she/her) chaired development of their recommendations for reviewing and designing qualitative research. She also chaired development of the inaugural APA Journal Article Reporting Standards for qualitative, qualitative meta-analytic, and mixed methods research. She has written books on qualitative reporting standards and on critical-constructivist grounded theory methods.
Dr. Imani Wadud
, #CiteBlackWomen Collective
Dr. Imani A. Wadud (she/her) is a queer, Black feminist educator, researcher, organizer, and curator of public practice. Her current focus on #BlackLife responds to a long-standing invocation from Black feminists’ past. Much of her research complicates assumptions, desires, and the effects of living in the afterlife of working together.
Javier Monforte
Assistant Professor, Universitat de València
Javier Monforte's research connects critical disability studies and physical activity promotion. He's also interested in contemporary philosophies, practices, and politics of post/conventional qualitative inquiry. He's on the Editorial Board of Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, and is an Associate Editor for Qualitative Health Research. He recently co-guest edited a special issue, "The critical posthumanities and postqualitative inquiry in psychology," also an upcoming book.
Jeong-Hee Kim
Professor, Texas Tech University
As a Fulbright Scholar, Jeong-Hee Kim undertook an award-winning project in narrative medicine that integrates storytelling, the arts, and the humanities into medical education, fostering more humanistic approaches to medical practice and shaping professional identities of future physicians. Her research focuses on interdisciplinary curriculum making. She also teaches graduate courses in narrative inquiry.
Jessica Perez Meza
PhD Student & Research Assistant, McGill University
Jessica has worked as a curriculum designer in educational projects grounded in community-based research and participatory methodologies in Peru and Panama. Her work has contributed to developing accessible materials that approach rural and Indigenous education in a contextualized and meaningful way. She is interested in exploring how curricular co-design and peace education can positively impact Mexican middle schools surrounded by violence.
Kylie Radel, PhD
Principal Research Fellow, Jawun Research Inst., Central Queensland University
Dr. Kylie Radel's research focuses on disaster management in rural/remote Australian communities, Indigenous engagement, and grounded theory methodology. With over 60 publications, books, and book chapters, she's also led numerous research projects. She's received prestigious teaching awards, including nationally for Indigenous student learning contributions and internationally for literacy & Indigenous education excellence.
Leah Levac
Associate Professor & Canada Research Chair in Critical Community Engagement and Public Policy (Tier 2), University of Guelph
Leah collaborates with community organizations, governments, Indigenous partners, and people with lived experiences of various forms of exclusion to explore and advance more justice- and equity-oriented policy processes and outcomes. Before beginning her position at the University of Guelph, she served as an elected councillor in the city of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
Leia K. Cain
Assistant Professor of Qualitative Methods, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Leia K. Cain, Ph.D. specializes in qualitative and mixed methods, particularly critical methods, narrative inquiry, and arts-based research. Her scholarship intersects methodological innovation and social justice, focusing on marginalized populations in educational contexts across the Southern U.S. while advancing theory in ethics, reflexivity, and qual/quant integration. She teaches, mentors, and coordinates the graduate certificate in qualitative research methods.
Dr. Linda Liebenberg
Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Qualitative Methods
Dr. Linda Liebenberg conducts research in youth mental health and well-being, and is invested in impactful knowledge mobilization for diverse knowledge users. She has worked with numerous international organizations, including WHO and Save the Children.
Lydia Hooper
Independent Consultant,
Lydia Hooper is a hybrid design professional with expertise in social impact, human-centered design, and trauma-informed practice. She’s worked with 60+ organizations as a consultant and intrapreneur. Lydia has spoken at 30+ events, including NVivo and SAGE Publications’ Qualitative Research & Innovation Webinar Series.
Shose Kessi, PhD
Professor & Dean, Faculty of Humanities, University of Cape Town
Shose Kessi's research centers on social and political psychology and the development of Photovoice methodology for community mobilization. She has published on the psychology of racism in higher education and other decolonial and pan-African approaches to psychology. She is co-director of the Hub for Decolonial Feminist Psychologies in Africa at UCT.
Dr. Simmee Chung
Associate Professor, Concordia University
Dr. Simmee Chung has over 20 years of experience in narrative inquiry research, seeking to amplify the voices of marginalized populations. She is the Program Chair-Elect for the American Educational Research Association’s Narrative Research Special Interest Group.
Tasha Hubbard
Writer, filmmaker, &, Associate Professor, University of Alberta
Tasha Hubbard is from Peepeekisis First Nation in Treaty Four Territory and has ties to Thunderchild First Nation in Treaty Six Territory. She is also the mother of a twelve-year-old son. Her academic research is on Indigenous efforts to return the buffalo to the lands and Indigenous film in North America. Her film nipawistamasowin: We Will Stand Up won the best Canadian feature documentary award at the 2019 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, as well as the Discovery Award from the 2019 Director's Guild of Canada.
Tatiana Becerra-Posada
Professor, Universidad de Cordoba
Tatiana’s research is grounded in decolonial theories of learning and education. Drawing on a lens of pluriversality, her doctoral work explored the land-based literacies of a rural community in the Colombian Caribbean, which later informed the co-design of decolonizing languages and technologies curricula. Tatiana is currently exploring transdisciplinary and alternative approaches to center equity, justice, and sustainability in languages and literacies research.
Pricing
This year, registration fees are:
- $200 for graduate students
- $300 for community practitioners, postdocs, and contract instructors
- $600 for full-time academics, government, and private sector
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Please note that all costs are listed in Canadian dollars (CAD). Payment is by credit card only.
We are committed to accessibility and have worked to keep registration costs reasonable compared to similar learning opportunities. TQ is a not-for-profit event, and your registration fees go directly towards making it possible. Thank you for your support!
Need financial support?
TQ offers a small number of scholarships for graduate students (click here) residing in low/middle-income countries (LMICs), and for community practitioners (click here) from equity-deserving groups and for whom finances are a barrier to attending.
We also offer the option to apply to give a "lightning presentation" (5 minutes or less), which may be useful for those who need to do so for funding purposes. Click here to apply.
Scholarship and presentation applications close on May 1, but are reviewed on a rolling basis. We recommend that you apply as soon as possible.
Downloads & Forms
Looking for an event resource? Here's what we have on the shelf...
Forms:
- Lightning presentation application form
- Scholarship application form (graduate students)
- Scholarship application form (community practitioners)
Event information:
Preview Document
FAQs
Have a question that isn't answered here? Get in touch with us at tqevent@ualberta.ca!
What is Thinking Qualitatively?
Thinking Qualitatively (TQ) is an annual event that aims to advance understanding of qualitative methods among graduate students, academics, and community research practitioners all over the world. We refer to TQ as a "learning and knowledge exchange event" - a blend between a course, conference, and workshop series that offers a focused sprint for enhancing your qualitative methods!
TQ was established over 24 years ago by the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology as a series with keynotes, panels, interdisciplinary methodological workshops, and software training sessions. We carry on this legacy, seeking to bring diverse scholarly voices into conversation, prioritize participants from equity-deserving groups, and equip the next generation of qualitative researchers with transformative tools to support social change.
What do you mean by the theme of "making a difference"?
We will consider the fundamental drive to "make a difference" through qualitative inquiry, focusing on knowledge mobilization and the translation of research into meaningful social impact, policy change, and community empowerment. Possible topics or key phrases include informing policy with lived expertise, community accompliceship, transformative co-design, visual and arts-based mobilization (such as narrative and photovoice), decolonial methodologies, data visualization for social impact, critical praxis, and many more.
Who is Thinking Qualitatively for?
TQ is geared toward graduate students, early career scholars, community practitioners, and any other thinkers interested in broadening their understanding of qualitative methods. Participants can be from any discipline or sector. You're completely welcome whether you're familiar with qualitative methods or are just starting to use them.
You should have some foundational knowledge of research methods broadly and an interest in expanding your knowledge and skills.
Where is Thinking Qualitatively?
Thinking Qualitatively is held completely online. After registering, participants are emailed access to the learning hub, where their schedule and any event resources are hosted. After registration closes, you will receive calendar invites to the sessions for which you are registered.
What is included in my registration? How many sessions of each type can I take?
Your registration package includes:
- Your choice of up to five interactive workshops (any combination of introductory and deep dive workshops)
- Your choice of up to three skill-builder sessions
- Opportunity to apply to give a lightning presentation
- Knowledge exchange and social sessions
- Recognition of attendance with a Digital Badge (certificate) if requirements are met
What is the difference between "intro" and a "deep dive" workshops?
This year, workshops are offered at one of two learning levels: introductory or deep-dive.
Introductory workshops are:
- Intended to provide foundational or working knowledge on a particular subject.
- Recommended for those who are newer to the topic, or those who need a refresher.
- Are about 3 hours in length, with a mix of presentation and interactive activities.
- Are recorded.
"Deep dive" workshops:
- Offer more focused, specialized, or complex examinations of the topic.
- Require some foundational knowledge, listed in the workshop's description, to get the most out of the session.
- Are about 2 hours in length, usually with more emphasis on interactivity than presentation.
- Are not recorded.
You're welcome to enroll in a mix of intro and deep-dive sessions as you see fit (up to 5 workshops in total), based on your learning needs.
What is the cost of registration?
We have worked to keep registration costs as reasonable as possible:
- $200 for graduate students
- $300 for community practitioners and early-career scholars (including post-docs and contract staff)
- $600 for full-time academics (professors), government, and private sector staff
Please note that all prices are listed in Canadian dollars (CAD). Payment is by credit card.
How do I apply for a scholarship?
TQ offers a small number of scholarships for graduate students (click here) residing in low/middle-income countries (LMICs), and for community practitioners (click here) from equity-deserving groups and for whom finances are a barrier to attending.
The deadline to apply is May 1, 2026; however, applications will be reviewed and approved on a rolling basis. We recommend that you apply as soon as possible.
We also offer the option to apply to give a "lightning presentation" (5 minutes or less), which may be useful for those who need to do so for funding purposes. Click here to apply.
What are the digital badge (certificate of attendance) requirements?
To be eligible for a digital badge (certificate of attendance), you must fully attend (live) a total of 5 between:
- 3-4 deep-dive/intro workshops
- 1-2 skill-builders
Please note that attendance towards the digital badge requirements is monitored. To ensure your attendance is fully counted, we recommend attending TQ under the same name and email address that you used to register.
Partial attendance or watching session recordings do not count towards meeting the digital badge requirements.
Can I present at Thinking Qualitatively?
Yes! If you have an interesting methodological puzzle, insight, or issue to share, apply to be a "lightning" presenter!
For more details and to apply, click here.
Deadline for applications is May 1. Applications will be reviewed and approved on a rolling basis.
Can I participate if I don’t live in Canada?
Yes! All activities are virtual. Sessions are offered at three different times of day and are sometimes repeated to accommodate participants in different time zones as best we can. Please note that the event is delivered in English.
How can I find out what time the sessions are in my time zone?
On event materials, session times are usually given in Mountain Time (MT), UTC-6. When we send you session calendar invites, most calendar platforms will automatically convert the invitation to your timezone. Please double-check!
On our website and the event app, you can also select your time zone in the upper right-hand header menu (desktop).
How do I join my sessions?
After registration closes, you will be emailed calendar invitations with Zoom links to the sessions for which you are registered. Please ensure that you check your spam folder!
To join your session, click on the Zoom link in your calendar invitation or calendar event.
Before workshops and skill-builders, our intrepid teaching assistants will also send you a reminder email with a link to join.
Are the sessions recorded?
Some sessions are recorded:
The 3-hour introductory workshops are recorded. The recordings will be sent to attendees in the weeks following the event.
Skill-builders, 2-hour deep-dive workshops, and social events are not recorded due to the nature of the sessions.
About Thinking Qualitatively
Thinking Qualitatively (TQ) is an annual learning and knowledge exchange event that aims to advance understanding of qualitative methods among graduate students, academic scholars, and community research practitioners all over the world. Established over 25 years ago by the International Institute of Qualitative Methodology as a series with keynotes, panels, interdisciplinary methods workshops, and software training, we continue to offer exceptional opportunities to the qualitative research community worldwide. We seek to bring diverse scholarly voices into conversation, prioritize participation for equity-deserving groups, and equip the next generation of researchers with transformative tools to support social change.
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This year's planning team includes Sara Dorow, Gillian Lemermeyer, Emily Friedrich, and Liz Harry.
Recent past TQ events include:
- [2025] Thinking Qualitatively: Research Relationships (TQ:2R)
- [2024] Thinking Qualitatively: Time and Place (TQ:TaP)
- [2023] Thinking Qualitatively: Doing Intersectionality (TQ:DI)
Have a question? Get in touch at tqevent@ualberta.ca!
Sponsors
Our thanks for the returning support of Quirkos, a key partner in providing scholarships, and to the World Conference on Qualitative Research and Aalto Center for Qualitative Management Research (Qual+) for their generous support.
Thinking Qualitatively is an annual event of the International Institute for Qualitatively Methodology (IIQM).
