Well, a lot has certainly happened since January. COVID for the research world resulted in many events, activities and studies grinding to a halt and/or moving online.

Given the resultant demand for increased guidance in online research methods, Sage is moving up the production of our new book (co-authored with Dr. Jessica Lester) Doing Qualitative Research in a Digital World. Thanks to our multitude of vignette writers, there is lots of practical advice and guidance for doing research with digital tools and in digital spaces. Should be out by the end of this year, I believe.

One rite of passage this past spring was the experience of fully online Zoom dissertation defenses. I had the privilege of being part of Dr. Leslie Anderson’s defense at the University of Georgia.

While my Penn State Research Methods for Applied Linguistics workshop has been postponed until October (you can register for free here), the Qualitative Research Summer Intensive will be held as always at the end of July. My two workshops will be taught full online via Zoom – one on analyzing online talk and the other on digital tools for qualitative research.

Three Quillen medical students, an East Tennessee State University public health student and I were able to get a good bit of data analysis done on our healthcare provider communication skills research study completed as part of Quillen’s summer medical student research program and the Honors College undergraduate summer research fellowship program. We analyzed 122 videos of students doing patient-centered interviews with standardized patients using conversation analysis methods. Sadly the Rutgers University Conversation Analysis Core Skills Workshop & Symposium was cancelled this month, so I wasn’t able to share this data with colleagues there- maybe next summer!

It’s been a busy summer as my first on a 12 month contract. As part of my work with the Applied Social Research Lab we are launching a Faculty Research Cohort here at ETSU to provide skill training and other support. I’ll also be giving a webinar on “What Qualitative Data Analysis Software Can Do For You” for ETSU researchers, and I presented on the same topic earlier this year for both Dr. Lori Roessner and Dr. Lisa Yamagata-Lynch at the University of Tennessee (always nice to be back on Rocky Top, virtually speaking.) I also had the chance to guest lecture for Dr. Jill Channing’s summer Qualitative Research course on the topics of narrative inquiry and the analysis of online talk. Dr. Alyssa and I recently completed a podcast interview with Dr. Pengfei Zhao for the New Books Network which should be out later this month.

Finally, our analysis of patient preferences for route of administration for ARV treatment is now available:

Matza, L.S., Paulus, T.M., Garris, C.P., Van de Velde, N., Chounta, V., & Deger K.A. (2020). Qualitative thematic analysis of social media data to assess perceptions of route of administration for antiretroviral treatment among people living with HIV. The Patient: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40271-020-00417-8

Good health and good wishes to all.