This volume speaks to the use of poetry in critical qualitative research and practice focused on social justice. In this collection, poetry is a response, a call to action, agitation, and a frame for future social justice work. The authors engage with poetry's potential for connectivity, political power, and evocation through methodological, theoretical, performative, and empirical work. The poet-researchers consider questions of how poetry and Poetic Inquiry can be a response to political and social events, be used as a pedagogical tool to critique inequitable social structures, and how Poetic Inquiry speaks to our local identities and politics. The authors answer the "What spaces can poetry create for dialogue about critical awareness, social justice, and re-visioning of social, cultural, and political worlds?" This volume adds to the growing body of Poetic Inquiry through the demonstration of poetry as political action, response, and reflective practice. We hope this collection inspires you to write and engage with political poetry to realize the power of poetry as political action, response, and reflective practice.
In my research, writing, and advocacy about close relationships and relational communication, I incorporate theory and research from a variety of interpersonal, sexuality, health, feminist, and culture literatures to interrogate sexuality and identity. I focus on the role of culture and relational processes in discussions and discourse about sexuality and stigmatized identities in interpersonal relationships using qualitative and critical research methods. I am interested in how relational processes and goals influence disclosure decisions about sexual information and potentially stigmatizing identities, how the negotiation of identities influences relational health, how larger discourses surrounding identity influence and shape our relational experiences, and how we narrate and re-narrate our experiences for personal and social change.
Some essays are solid and get to the heart of what the author(s) argue, but some are just plain stinkers that meander, focus too much on the author's personal experience, or are just oblivious to the issues they attempt to argue. I question the integrity of the selection process conducted by these editors.