2022-01-21 (Creation date: 2022-01-21)

Rubin, Ashley T.

In this talk, I will discuss my new book, Rocking Qualitative Social Science (Stanford University Press, 2021), focusing on my motivations for writing it and what I see as its main contributions. I will emphasize the importance of matching the research process to the goals of the research project. In that spirit, I will contrast the common emphasis on the one “right way” of doing qualitative research to what I call the “dirtbagging” approach to research, which is a more inclusive and flexible approach that still follows the scientific method, but rearranges the steps in ways that we are often told not to do. Finally, I will offer some highlights from the book focused on countering some conventional wisdom.

Indiana University Workshop in Methods

Workshop in Methods

Social Science Research Commons

Accompanying materials on IUScholarWorks (presentation slides) 

Ashley Rubin is an associate professor of Sociology at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She holds a PhD in Jurisprudence and Social Policy. Rubin’s research examines the dynamics of penal change throughout US history. In particular, she uses organizational theory, law and society, punishment and society, and prison sociology to understand prisoner behavior, administrative behavior, and penal trends more broadly. In addition to her books The Deviant Prison and Rocking Qualitative Social Science, she is currently writing a book on the history of American prisons.