Short Stories for Social Research: Exploring the Possibilities of Social Fiction

This innovative volume focuses on social fiction as both a methodological tool and a research product. Drawing on original stories and social theories, this diverse group of authors offers their perspectives to provide a practical guide for developing skills in utilizing social fiction throughout the research process, from study design to the delivery of research outcomes.

While many authors share original works of social fiction in their chapters, others focus on the value of stories, particularly when stories are sacred and cannot be shared in full. Across these approaches, the book broadens the definition of social fiction and demonstrates its power to reimagine research and knowledge-making. This approach fosters a holistic understanding of the relationship between social fiction and research, encouraging researchers to draw on insights from various disciplines.

This interdisciplinary book is for novice and seasoned researchers alike who can recognize the potential of social fiction, as well as scholars and students in the social sciences, the humanities, Indigenous studies, and education who use qualitative research in their work. By engaging with this text, readers can develop critical skills in crafting narratives, integrating social theories, and applying fiction as a methodological tool.

Cecile H. Sam is Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at Rowan University, USA. She explores faculty work, academic leadership, and the shifting contours of higher education in the techno-modern era. Her current projects focus on the ethical dimensions of faculty life, leadership, and the ways technology reshapes our understanding of education. Across her writing and teaching, she foregrounds story as a critical lens for exploring how power, ethics, and identity intersect in academic contexts.

Ane Turner Johnson is Professor of Educational Leadership at Rowan University, USA. As a scholar of international education, her research traces the entanglements of policymaking, governance, and (neo)colonial resistance in African higher education. From exploring refugee students’ deployment of cultural heritage to documenting epistemic disobedience among faculty, her work champions qualitative, decolonial approaches that disrupt the dominance of neoliberal and positivist research regimes in education.