Contemporary Feminist Research from Theory to Practice

by Patricia Leavy, Daniel X. Harris

Exploring the breadth of contemporary feminist research practices, this engaging text immerses the reader in cutting-edge theories, methods, and practical strategies. Chapters review theoretical work and describe approaches to conducting quantitative, qualitative, and community-based research with participants; doing content or media analysis; and evaluating programs or interventions. Ethical issues are addressed and innovative uses of digital media highlighted. The focus is studying gender inequities as they are experienced by individuals and groups from diverse cultural, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds, and with diverse gender identities. Delving into the process of writing and publishing feminist research, the text covers timely topics such as public scholarship, activism, and arts-based practices. The companion website features interviews with prominent feminist researchers.
 
Pedagogical Features
*Case examples of feminist research.
*Running glossary of key terms.
*Boxes highlighting hot topics and key points for practice.
*End-of-chapter discussion questions and activities.
*End-of-chapter annotated suggested reading (books, articles, and online resources).
*Sample letters to research participants.
*Appendix of feminist scholars organized by discipline.

Genres: Feminism

302 pages, Paperback

Published August 13, 2018

About the author

Patricia Leavy, Ph.D., is a bestselling author. She has published over fifty books, earning commercial and critical success in both fiction and nonfiction, and her work has been translated into many languages. Patricia has received over 100 book honors as well as 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 2024 the London Arts-Based Research Centre established "The Patricia Leavy Award for Arts-Based Research." She lives in Maine with her family. Patricia loves writing, reading, watching films, and traveling. These days, she's focused on writing feel-good love stories.

Reviews

[Emmaby Barton Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

the book i wish i had been assigned during undergrad!! this would have been so helpful - was so well written and structured. still valuable to read now, but i’m no longer at uni so large parts aren’t really relevant anymore - though i still got something from them - and made me feel excited about research which is always nice!! :) definitely a book i will come back to if i ever go back to study

some thoughts/takeaways:
- do i fully understand the difference between terms like post feminism, modernism, and structuralism? butler’s theories of gender? i can’t lie - not really lol - but thats ok
- appreciated the emphasis that these theories (and others) all overlap in practice and can’t be easily separated though - something i keep forgetting!!
- got more out of the ethics session than i expected - i’ve done a lot of ethics work from a bioethics and psych perspective, but through the feminist lens of this book, it was a good reminder that ethics aren’t always so black and white and there are more possibilities e.g., it can be ok to self-disclose, friendship as a methodology, collaboration with participants, value of emotions and relating personally to the work (and indeeds provides us with a sense of expertise), social fiction….
- importance of noting absences and silences
- hadn’t considered methods for non-living data so this was interesting
- lots of people/terms to look into more! appreciated all the resources
- “feminism has no end” - an interesting quote at the start that i wish they’d explored a bit more
- some of the historical context on trans* feminism and pussy riot movement was so interesting!

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really appreciate this text and am using it in my Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies senior seminar. I feel like it provides an excellent backdrop for my students as they begin to develop their research projects. I am particularly impressed with how the authors mapped out the terrain and included global feminisms as well as digital media!