Methods and Methodologies
A BSA Sociology of Emotions Study Group Event
13 March 2026 (13.00-14.00 GMT)
Online
About the Event
We're pleased to share information on our upcoming BSA Sociology of Emotions Study Group seminar, where we’re focusing on methods and methodologies in Emotions research.
We will hear from two speakers, with time at the end for questions and discussion.
Tina Hofman: PhD Researcher | Performance maker & Producer, Department of Modern Languages, University of Birmingham
15x15
This presentation examines two community arts projects in which participants engaged in a creative, object led exploration of identity and belonging. As the cultural producer facilitating these exchanges, I focus on how a simple creative prompt—inviting participants to design a 15×15 cm ceramic tile using personally meaningful objects or photographs thereof—encouraged complex systems of self-articulation, memory work, and connection. The task suggested to participants to work with material and non-verbal forms of expression over periods ranging from two days (Project 1, aimed at participants who were largely migrants) to eight weeks (Project 2, aimed at domiciled participants where I was a migrant).
Across both exchanges, participants developed deep attachments to the stories that emerged from this activity of choosing the objects that represent them. As narratives emerged around identity, personal, cultural and collective memory, and senses of belonging, participants increasingly sought to share these stories within the group. These moments of exchange generated an atmosphere of compassion, relationality, and visibility, particularly between those locally based in the place of workshop, and myself as a facilitator positioned as a guest or newcomer.
The presentation specifically highlights moments where emotions surfaced to surprise the participants as they slowly articulated multifaceted identities – these being accessed through revived memories and reflections, but specifically through the object-led practice which was the basis of this activity. Within the presentation I will also reflect on the care-embedded creative practice which supports with integrity this way of creative sharing, as well as the relationship between the creative prompt and the participants’ offering.
Olivia Maurer: Postgraduate Researcher, Urban Studies and Social Policy, University of Glasgow
Using Theatre of the Oppressed to Surface the Felt Experience of Place: Opportunities and Challenges
This seminar will focus on the use of Theatre of the Oppressed as a methodology to better understand our emotional experiences in the places we inhabit and pass through, conceptualised as the “felt experience of place” (Madgin, 2021). Theatre of the Oppressed, is a form of participatory theatre that has been used worldwide to make space for critical discourse and to promote community activism for political and social change. Through using this embodied and participatory methodology, we will consider how creative practice facilitates a space where this emotional knowledge stored in the body is able to be unlocked.
The session will highlight challenges in researching emotions found when doing this work, namely how doing group-based research has the potential to replicate the pre-existing confines of emotional regimes, as well as the difficulty in researching those everyday, mundane emotional experiences, which often go unrecognised and unspoken.
Registration
This event will take place online. This event is free to attend but registration is required.