Paper short abstract:

This presentation will consider what we can gain by bringing together creative writing as research method and creative writing as research output with reference to a long term feminist ethnography.

Paper long abstract:

Creative writing is writing ‘differently’ or writing ‘otherwise’ that offers freedom from the conventions of academic writing (Dahl, 2023; Kinnunen et al., 2021; Nash, 2024), enabling writing in a compelling manner. Academics are increasingly exploring creative writing to tell persuasive stories that can influence public opinion and policy (Jacobson and Larsen, 2014; Lawless, 2019; McNamara, 2009). There has also been considerable academic discussion, particularly among ethnographers, about creative writing as research method (Foster, 2007; Lister, 2003; Mahoney, 2007). Feminist scholars have further highlighted that women welcome the opportunity to craft their own narratives – this has been widely discussed with reference to the method of interviews (Finch, 1984; Oakley, 1981, 1981) and storytelling (Foster, 2007; Lawless, 2019; Mahoney, 2007; McNamara, 2009). However, most researchers approach the use of creative writing as research output and creative writing as research method as two separate processes. In this roundtable discussion, I will consider what we can gain by bringing those two modes of creative writing together. I will offer insights from the design of a project which uses story writing as a collaboration between the researcher and the research participants, with the aim to de-center the researcher as the author/narrator and enable direct expression of interlocutors’ voices. This project emerges from my longitudinal ethnography with young women workers in Delhi, India.