Creative Methods - Presentations, Conversations & Lunch, with Emeritus Professor Karen O'Reilly
Thursday 9 July 2026 | 10:00 to 14:00 | Avenue Campus, Highfield Road
Want to try new things in Ethnography? Or maybe you have already but need some guidance? Explore creative methods in a workshop this July.
Ethnographic practices now extend beyond interviews and participant observation.
New digital tools, smart phones, video, art, photography, mapping and other audio-visual techniques can provide valuable data points for ethnographic research.
But how do we go about incorporating multiple methods? What does it mean for data management? And how do we make sure we're continuing to collect and collate relevant data of ethical integrity and efficacy?
At this event, we'll hear from Emeritus Professor Karen O'Reilly about the principles of ethnography and how these principles can guide us in selecting and applying creative methods to our work.
We'll also hear from fellow researchers about creative methods they have used or are using in their fieldwork.
This insightful discussion will be followed by a networking lunch we're we'll get to share stories and ideas about our work while we eat.
Past events
Explore our past events
Ethnography in the pub
December 4, 2025
A chance to explore the theory, practice and principles of writing ethnography in an informal setting.
Writing Ethnography
November 26, 2025
This workshop helped participants to develop ethnographic skills with a seminar focused on the theory, practice and principles of writing ethnography.
It provided the opportunity to practice fieldwork in the wild, then review notes, develop vignettes and share insights with the group.
The workshop and seminar will be followed up with a reading group plus small group ethnographic excursions in December and February, where the cohort will put their ethnographic writing skills into practice.
Building Blocks of Visual Ethnography
October 30, 2025
Activities at this interactive workshop included visual mapping and photo diary techniques and explore the compelling exhibition Karama with visual artist and anthropologist Martin Ruddock.
We were joined by visual anthropologists to discover different approaches and ways to incorporate visual ethnographic techniques in academic work.
Why do we need Ethnography?
May 21, 2025
This event relaunched Debating Ethnography for 2025. It featured an interactive workshop and discussion about the use and value of ethnography in our research practice.
Founders Professor Marion Demossier and Dr. Adriana Patino introduced the role of ethnography in their work, shared the vision of this research group, and invited participants to consider the question: “Why do we need ethnography?”
This event was open to researchers and doctoral students who are focused on ethnography or wish to explore ways to integrate ethnographic methods into their research.
Participants had the opportunity to share their own work, engage with key questions about ethnography, and debate its importance in contemporary research.
Ethnography as a tool for innovation in theories of political behaviour
March 18, 2024
Speaker: Mariana Borges
With its detailed attention to context and the meanings individuals attributed to their reality, ethnography’s role as a tool for questioning established political behaviour theories is well-known and recognized. But could a method that emphasizes context-based explanations also help build broader and more generalizable theories of political behaviour?
Drawing on her book manuscript, the speaker discussed how ethnographic evidence could be mobilized to support innovative theories of political behaviour without losing its attention to context and meaning-making. She explained how she used a combination of interpretivism and abduction as analytical tools alongside a systematic ethnography to substantiate a new cultural theory of political behaviour proposed in her manuscript.
Combining insights from cultural sociology and cognitive science, the cultural theory she offered provided a broad framework for understanding political behaviour, while emphasizing the importance of considering local meanings and contexts to better understand political choices.
Mariana Borges Martins da Silva is a Lecturer in Politics at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Southampton. Previously, she was a postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow in Politics at the Nuffield College, University of Oxford. She received her PhD from Northwestern University. Mariana's research focuses on political behaviour, particularly in clientelism, misinformation, and the representation of marginalized groups. Her works combine ethnography and survey methods to uncover the influence of culture on political behaviour.