Spark: Why I Wrote a Novel Designed to Teach the Research Process

Authors

Patricia Leavy, Independent ScholarFollow

Abstract

I’m a sociologist specializing in research methodology. I’m also a novelist. When my latest novel, Spark, was released, people remarked that it seemed inevitable for me to combine my two passions. I agree. In some ways this is probably always where my work was heading, although it necessarily took a long time to get here. I’d like to share why as a scholar I turned to fiction, the inspiration for Spark, and my hopes for the book.

Keywords

Research Methodology, Arts-Based Research, Writing, Fiction, Teaching, Pedagogy

Author Bio(s)

Patricia Leavy, PhD, has published over twenty-five books, earning commercial and critical success in both nonfiction and fiction, and her work has been translated into numerous languages. Her recent nonfiction titles include Handbook of Arts-Based Research, Research Design, Method Meets Art Second Edition, and The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research. She is also series creator and editor for seven book series with Oxford University Press and Brill/Sense, including the ground-breaking Social Fictions series, and is cofounder and co-editor-in-chief of Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal. In addition to receiving numerous accolades for her books, she has received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2018, she was honored by the National Women’s Hall of Fame and SUNY-New Paltz established the “Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice.” Her website is http://www.patricialeavy.com/.

Publication Date

3-17-2019

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3996

Recommended APA Citation

Leavy, P. (2019). Spark: Why I Wrote a Novel Designed to Teach the Research Process. The Qualitative Report, 24(3), 559-562. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3996