“Profound changes in the way we think and act must take placeif we are to create a loving culture.”1What if we expressed critical qualitative inquiry is/as love?We might move beyond normative approaches to introducing researchthat place queer theory, LatCrit theory, Critical Race Theory, feminist theory, dis/ability studies, the Global South, Indigenous epistemologies, the more-than-human, and so very many morein the margins—in the periphery—outside the conventionsof what becomes acceptable to know, think, feel, write, teach, and do in research.We might insist that an N of 1 is significantin the hopes that we will not continue to questionhow many more we will grieve before change occurs.Orlando. Sandy Hook. Columbine. Charleston. Baton Rouge. Sanford. . . . .(Those lost in the backdrop of the daily neighborhood gunfire to which I write.)We might situate our classrooms along local axes of need2and teach different ways of knowing3through de/colonizing epistemologies4and projects of the critical imagination5and “empathy and the imagination-intellect”6and acts and expressions of love.7We might write Slow methodologies8in place of McMethodologiesand pause in the midst of hateto cook up something good,something nourishing, made with love,something to repair and sustain our souls.We might collectively reimagine the foundations of social researchso that love might become ontology, epistemology, methodology, axiology,and pedagogy, too.9We might then contribute to a better worldby countering the changing tides of our historical present,by teaching methodological diversity as methodological justice, andby teaching critical qualitative inquiry is/as love.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Notes
Author Biography
Jasmine B. Ulmer (PhD, University of Florida) is an assistant professor of education evaluation and research at Wayne State University. Her research interests include writing and critical qualitative inquiry.
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