The new academic year has begun here in Athens, Georgia. I am teaching Qualitative Research Traditions and Qualitative Research Design, along with a course on Social Media for freshmen.

The summer MOOD event was a success, as was our post-conference hiking tour of the Leutasch Valley in Austria. We even took a bike ride into Germany.

MOOD attendees at the closing session

Hiking in Paradise Valley

Biking to Mittenwald

This academic year brings continued work with the Digital Tools Collaborative, where we will be coordinating another Digital Tools Strand at ICQI in May. Last year’s was very successful indeed, with standing room only in most of the sessions.

Giving away raffle items

DTC coordinators: myself, Kristi Jackson and Judi Davidson

I’ll be attending TQR again in 2016, too, after a year’s hiatus, and I look forward to connecting with that community.

My last doctoral student from UTK will be defending his dissertation next month, a bittersweet event indeed. But it was exciting to admit a new cohort to our doctoral program in Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methodologies here at UGA, and I look forward to learning more about the students.