On Friday, September 25, from 12-1:30 PM, Dr. Sarah Elton will present her doctoral dissertation research in CQ’s first online seminar. There will be a 1-hour presentation and moderated discussion, followed by a 30-minute informal chat with the presenter. The Zoom link to join the seminar will be emailed to participants on the morning of the presentation.

Dr. Elton is the winner of the 2019-2020 Joan Eakin Award for Methodological Excellence. See below for more information about the presentation.

Title: Growing Methods: Exploring how to work with plants as research participants in critical qualitative research

Abstract: Posthumanist research shifts the research lens from the Euro-Western human’s self-appointed status as the earth’s supreme to invite nonhumans – animals and plants – to be the focus of qualitative study. However, it is not straightforward to trouble methodological perspectives that see non-humans as simply backdrop in order to make way for nonhumans like plants and animals in knowledge production.

In this presentation I put forward a qualitative research methodology that helps to see plants as social actors, supporting health in the city. Reporting on my doctoral work I share a multispecies ethnography of gardeners and the plants they grow for food in Toronto’s Regent Park. As a critical qualitative health researcher I wrestle with questions that include – How to account for plants and their agency? What is evidence of vegetal politics? What is a multispecies ethnographer doing when decentering the human in relation to garden plants, beyond what is un-done ontologically?

*Please note that this session will be recorded.