Creating, Negotiating, and Transcending Social Boundaries in Everyday Life
Hosted by St. Thomas University
May 16 to 18, 2018

Abstract submission deadline: September 15th, 2017
Boundaries are key concepts in the social science tool-kit. They are social, physical, temporal, spatial, virtual and relational; they provide a space for qualitative researchers to examine the everyday world, using traditional concepts and practices grounded in the very history of qualitative research. At the same time, qualitative research and researchers have pushed and transcended methodological and conceptual boundaries, exploring new and emerging spaces, deepening our understandings of a social world where boundaries are increasingly varied shades of grey. The theme of this year’s conference offers an opportunity to explore the meanings of social boundaries: how they change, mutate, shift, and are transgressed/ing and reconstituted/ing.
We are pleased to announce our guest speakers for 2018. Thomas Gieryn, Rudy Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Indiana University, will present the Keynote Address, “Truth-Spots: How Places Make People Believe.” Elizabeth Comack, Professor of Sociology at the University of Manitoba, will be our Featured Speaker.
We invite papers that speak to these issues, particularly those that take a Symbolic Interactionist or SI-related approach, as well as other qualitative approaches. We also welcome submissions from students and faculty new to this tradition as well as from established scholars in the field. Recognizing that scholarship is an ongoing process, we are receptive to presentations of research in varying stages of development, including more tentative formulations.
To submit an abstract please visit www.qualitatives.ca/submit-abstract. The abstract should be no longer than 150 words, and should be accompanied by three to five keywords about both the empirical area and social process. Presentations will be 15 minutes with 5 minutes for discussion.
If you have any questions, please contact us at thequalitatives@gmail.com.