Method Meets Art, Second Edition: Arts-Based Research Practice

I used this book in a doctoral level course on critical autoethnography. The students loved the book! We discussed it in depth, and several students were inspired to use various arts-based methods in their final papers for the class. They intend to use these methods as they proceed with their dissertation research. They were captivated as the possibilities for presenting research findings in creative and interesting formats that allow them to write compelling accounts of working with marginalized communities. One of the students, Rebecca, said that the book gives her hope for being able to write "meaningful pieces that reach beyond the academy." Leavy's book presents the perfect blending of the arts and the sciences. Bravo, Patricia!

Fantastic overview of Arts Based Research. Leavy contextualizes ABR and includes a range of approaches within different art forms. It's been an amazing textbook for my research subject in my postgrad teaching course.

Love this for anyone wanting to do arts based research projects. This book is a must use!

Just what I needed to think more deeply about my ABER with Education Majors

I think a colleague I was talking about this book with most appropriately put into words how I feel about this work from Dr. Leavy - "Where has this book been all my life" my colleague exclaimed, and that is exactly how I feel.For many researchers, teachers, and public academics, methods represent an ongoing, often tense, conversation within and between fields throughout the arts and sciences. Rather than the binary distinction between arts and science preached by old school positivism and academics wedded to abstract notions of this or that type of knowledge as better or worse, more or less valid, and / or more or less useful in educating and speaking to broader public audiences, however, this book outlines (with citations and examples for use when encountering old school positivists and others obsessed with artificial boundaries) many ways artistic science and scientific arts can work in tandem with one another to both make information and knowledge more useful and accessible to broader audiences, and to capture the many aspects of the physical, social, and aesthetic world that do not fit so neatly into this or that arbitrary model. For anyone seeking to do arts-based-science or science-based-arts or both, this is a MUST READ, and a powerful example of some of the ways fluid approaches to knowledge, information, and education may go much farther than the hierarchical, binary obsessions of the past!

I purchased and read Method Meets Arts while researching and writing my graduate thesis for my master’s degree. My area of concentration was the history of science, technology and medicine. Dr. Leavy’s work was an invaluable resource.Her introduction into arts-based research (ABR) methodologies helped me open the door to innovative ways to approach historical investigations. Yes, history as a field of study traditionally falls underneath the umbrella of the humanities, but it too is a branch of the social sciences. The arts are an underlining factor in both realms of study.Applying the ABR methodologies learned from MMA helped me establish interdisciplinary bridges between the academic worlds of history, art history, sociology and anthropology. Dr. Leavy’s work was so pivotal to my thesis that I mentioned her work in my prologue. I graduated from the Harvard Extension School in May 2016. My thesis was awarded the Director’s Prize for Outstanding Thesis in the Social Sciences! ABR helped me push beyond the traditional boundaries of scholarship and allowed me to infuse innovative approaches into my area of study.

This book is an excellent text and resource for researchers and graduate students who are interested in arts-based research. A comprehensive review and in-depth exploration of why this new emerging methodology will meet the expectations and goals of contemporary research in education, social sciences, and other fields. Other some ABR books and papers offers views and perspectives on arts-based research from a single discipline, but Leavy offers a balanced and comprehensive overview of how researchers can ABR in the disciplines of arts, as well as offering a review of major exemplary works of arts-based research in the field. The first chapter provides an excellent overview of ABR, along with the last chapter discussing how to evaluate ABR and what we should expect from ABR. This book is my first choice to recommend anyone who is looking for expanding their research methods beyond traditional qualitative research methods.

In the second edition of Method Meets Art Patricia Leavy masterfully presents the case for Arts-Based Research (ABR) by contextualizing it within and between other more dominant research traditions and across multiple disciplinary domains. Dr.Leavy eloquently introduces, represents, and makes accessible the philosophic bases and methodological practices of ABR. In this way she invites the reader to transcend the traditional research and disciplinary silos and consider the arts as rigorous, credible, and authentic forms of knowledge and methods of investigation that can only enhance and contribute to our understanding of the human condition. With this book Dr. Leavy has provided all who are remotely curious and even a little skeptical of ABR a reasonable and unapologetic way of learning more about ABR. Great read and good introductory text!

Excellent for my purposes as a student.

great book, some chapters more relevant than others (for my practice) but good to have an overview. Clearly written and easy to understand.