2013 – 2014 marked my first scholastic year as a Professor at Clemson University. During this time, I had the honor of teaching some incredible students – a few of whom expressed interest in conducting consumer research with me. Although I didn’t have time at that moment, I created a plan over the summer to get a small group of exceptional students involved in qualitative consumer research.
After many brainstorming sessions with my husband, Robbie Fitzwater, a plan started to emerge and a one-year Creative Inquiry proposal was created. The first semester (the Spring semester) would consist of student-led seminars where the students would read and discuss topics including: developing research questions, different qualitative methods, inscribing field notes, and data collection aids. Over the summer, students would travel to the field and collect qualitative data, and in the fall semester, students would learn how to code, conduct a qualitative data analysis, and how to write up qualitative data results. I chose the context of large music festivals to study, because I love live music and because I have wanted to study the context for a very long time. I also thought it would be a fun context for the students.
So far, I have been very impressed with how easy it is to initiate, submit and manage a Creative Inquiry project. Both Barbra Speziale (Associate Dean and Program Director) and Tullen Burns (Program Assistant) are great at assisting and answering questions.
January 15th marked the first day of the 2015 Qualitative Creative Inquiry. For this seminar, we discussed what qualitative research is and read Markus Giesler‘s 2008 JCR entitled “Conflict and Compromise: Drama in Marketplace Evolution.” I was incredibly impressed with the team’s ability to learn and synthesize ideas from academic article. We are off to a great start!”
Anastasia, January 2015
