Published in: Text Journal, Oct 31, 2019
Creative duoethnography: a collaborative methodology for arts research
Abstract:
Duoethnography is a dialogic methodology originally developed for social, health, and educational research (Sawyer & Norris 2015). In duoethnography, co-researchers actively question both their collaborator(s) and themselves, seeking to reperceive issues from different angles, thereby looking to and beyond the peripheries of what is known and how. Our essay argues the benefits of duoethnography for creative arts research. Drawing on our reading of relevant scholarly literature, and on learning gleaned through past and ongoing duoethnographic collaborations, we begin by considering collaborative research writing broadly, including related and alternative approaches. Then we outline duoethnography’s history and defining features, before relating our use of duoethnography in our collaborative research. A key feature of our approach is that we weave scenes with fictionalised characters into our main duoethnographic dialogue. In this article, we share our process, intending to provide insights relevant to creative arts academics also interested in collaborative research approaches.