The Qualitative Language: about the Personal, Scientific and the Political
February 20-21, 2008, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Conference Summary

More than 300 scholars participated in the conference, of which 190 presented their work. Delegates were from a wide range of disciplines including anthropology, education, history, social work, management, health science, literature, and music. 
 
During the two days conference there were 45 parallel sessions, divided to 6 rounds (3 per day), in a wide spectrum of topics and disciplines, which included "traditional" and innovative topics, issues and methodologies. Sessions took up such topics as: the language of qualitative research, analysis and interpretation, mixed methods, qualitative, feminist multicultural dialogue, ethical and political issues, reflection, self-learning and building knowledge in qualitative research and dilemmas in interviews. 

The conference included two plenary sessions. The first keynote speaker was Prof. Norman Denzin, from University of Illinois, on "The New Paradigm Dialogs and Qualitative Inquiry" (transcript of the lecture).Norman Danzin 
 
The second plenary session was chaired by Prof. Uri Ram, and was devoted to the title of the conference: the language of qualitative research. Dr. Ron Kuzar, from Haifa University spoke on "complementary models verses competing models". Dr. Khaled Furani spoke about the politics in the language of modern Arabic poetry. Dr. Michal Krumer - Nevo and Mirit Sidi spoke on "writing that opposed othering',

At the end of the first day of the conference a special tribute evening was held, to mark the retirement of Prof. Naama Sabar Ben - Joshua, a pioneer in qualitative research in Israel. The evening included a varied program prepared by her students over the years and led by Dr. Bone- Mitleman and Dr. Guttman.

The conference also included the annual meeting of the Association for Research of the Multi-Dimensional Person: the Association of Qualitative Researchers in Israel. During the meeting Professor Amia Lieblich spoke of her new book and the association award for distinguish qualitative paper was presented. 

We have received enthusiastic feedback following the conference, which stressed the high quality of academic work presented at the conference and the open and relaxed atmosphere that allowed conference delegates to feel belong to a dynamic and inspiring community of scholars.