FREE ONLINE WEBINAR FOR SOCIAL RESEARCHERS

Qualitative Research in 2026: New Challenges and Opportunities

Join special guest speaker, Dr Karen Lumsden, expert trainer founder of Qualitative Training, to explore the current landscape of qualitative research and the challenges and opportunities every researcher should know.

JOIN THE LIVE WEBINAR

Tuesday 28 July @ 1pm GMT+1

FREE ONLINE WEBINAR FOR SOCIAL RESEARCHERS

Qualitative Research in 2026:

New Challenges and Opportunities

Join special guest speaker, Dr Karen Lumsden, expert trainer founder of Qualitative Training, to explore the current landscape of qualitative research and the challenges and opportunities every researcher should know.

JOIN THE LIVE WEBINAR

Tuesday 28 July @ 1pm GMT+1

Want an expert overview of recent trends, developments and shifts in qualitative research, what new challenges these create for researchers, and what novel opportunities they might present too?

What You'll Learn

In this 90-minute webinar plus Q&A, we'll cover:

  1. What are the current challenges and opportunities that exist for qualitative research—and researchers—in 2026?

  2. How has the recent arrival of AI technologies impacted expectations, practice, processes, and especially funding around qualitative research?

  3. Is qualitative research changing in ways that reinforce or reject its distinctive focus on valuing what humans think, say, and do, within empirical data collection and analysis?

  4. How can we respond to the shifting landscape of qualitative research and continue to champion qualitative research and support new researchers on their journey?

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

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How you'll benefit

After our webinar and Q&A you'll:

  1. Gain a better understanding of the cutting edge state of play for qualitative research in 2026, as well as the distinctive challenges and opportunities that exist for qualitative researchers.

  2. Be confidently equipped to consider the ethics of qualitative research and how AI threatens the value inherent in qualitative approaches, whether you're someone who wants to embrace AI-based tools, resist using them or who is indifferent.

  3. Clarify how the specific realities of the current moment are impacting qualitative research training needs and gain insight into how to meet them.

Join Dr Karen Lumsden, expert coach, trainer, consultant and founder of Qualitative Training for a free online webinar on Tuesday 28 July at 1pm London-time (BST) to delve into what's changing about qualitative empirical methods, what's staying the same, and how researchers like you can make the most of it

A headshot of Karen, a white woman with straight red hair in a precise chin-length bob, wearing small hoop earrings and a black top, smiling to camera. The background is a kind of duck egg blue.

Our guest expert speaker

Dr Karen Lumsden

Founder of Qualitative Training

Founder of the Women in Qual Network

Karen Lumsden, PhD, is a trainer, consultant, and ICF qualified professional coach and mentor. She is the founder of Qualitative Training and the Women in Qual Community. She is a social scientist, with the majority of her research and evaluation work over the years sitting in/across sociology, criminology, and public health.

She has over 25 years’ experience delivering qualitative training, coaching and mentoring to academics, PhD students, social researchers and practitioners. Through her business, Qualitative Training, she regularly delivers the (first of its kind) 4-week Reflexive Thematic Analysis Bootcamp, and various popular virtual Masterclasses including, for example, on Trauma-Informed Qualitative Research, and Sensitive Qualitative Interviews.

She regularly delivers training for a range of clients including universities, the Social Research Association, the European Consortium for Political Research, government departments, NHS Trusts, charities, police constabularies, and social research organisations.

Karen has held a number of academic posts over the years, including Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Leicester and the University of Nottingham, and Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Aberdeen and Loughborough University. She officially left academia for the final time in early 2025.

Over the years, Karen has been involved in a number of funded research projects and evaluations in social sciences, policing and health. She has published extensively, including on qualitative research, reflexivity and autoethnography. She is co-editor of the award winning book - Crafting Autoethnography and Reflexivity in Criminological Research and the author of books including: Reflexivity: Theory, Method, Practice.

You can follow Karen on LinkedIn and subscribe to her newsletter here.

A headshot of Zara, a white woman with curly red hair, oversized clear circular glasses, a leopard print cardigan and a slight smile. In the background is a large green bush with purple flowers and a cream coloured building.

Your host

Dr Zara Bain

Founder of Academic Audio Transcription

Zara Bain is an expert in social justice and social entrepreneur helping researchers, educators, and online businesses make knowledge--and knowledge-creation--more accessible.

Zara has a PhD in social & political philosophy and social epistemology from the University of Bristol.

As a disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent researcher, Zara founded research-specialist transcription and closed-captioning social enterprise, Academic Audio Transcription, in 2017, after realising that if she wanted flexible, fairly-paid remote work accessible from bed or while housebound during medical leave from her doctoral studies, she'd need to build it herself.

She lives in West London with her partner and two little boys, and in her spare time can be found walking in the woods, experimenting with new recipes, or volunteering at her local city farm.

Will this event be recorded?

What accessibility measures will be in place?

  • The event will take place over Zoom and the main seminar itself will be recorded, although we will turn the recording off for the Q&A.

  • All of our events include automated live captions as standard, although we recognise that these are an imperfect solution.

  • There will not be Sign Language Interpreting available at this event due to budgetary constraints, but we aim to include BSL interpreting at future events as soon as possible.

  • The replay will be emailed to everyone who signs up to the event, with Zoom-native automated closed-captions, within 24 hours of the event. We will also endeavour to share a PDF copy of any slides, including image descriptions/alt text.

  • Around 7-10 days after the event, we'll update the replay with high-quality, accessibility-first closed captions alongside a publication-ready transcript of the event (both supplied by Academic Audio Transcription).

  • If you have any questions about additional accessibility measures, please email us at [email protected].

Nice words about your host,

Academic Audio Transcription

LinkedIn Comment from Dr Dyi Dieuwetje Huijg, which reads: 'You're too kind - thank you for all your amazing work!! I can't recommend working with Zara Bain PhD and Academic Audio Transcription high enough. When I work with colleagues on collab writing projects we sometimes save automated captions, and they're a disaster. In contrast, the transcripts from AAT are so accurate and easy to work with!! And I loved that they used all my directions for eg transcribing non-verbal communication- including silences and laughter - too! Because, all of that is so important for making sense of the interviews! But also just on a practical level, they were always understanding and accommodating when I ran on crip time. Was a pleasure to work with them and would do it again in a next project! I'm so thankful for The Leverhulme Trust for making this (financially) possible.
Screenshot of testimonial which reads: "AAT Was so lovely to work with! I had a complex project and a limited budget. The team at AAT were very thoughtful in helping me work through this. I was also glad to be working with a group of folks who support often-marginalized people. I will definitely be using AAT again in my qualitative work and recommending them to others."
Screenshot testimonial reads: "Q: Would you recommend AAT's services to others seeking transcription or closed caption services? Why or why not? A: Yes. Definitely. AAT is great to work with, the team is knowledgeable and collaborative, and the standard of captioning and transcription has been consistently excellent. I also think that AAT are facilitating an ethical approach to providing accessibility accommodations, by providing fairly paid work for disabled people."
Screenshot of testimonial which reads: "I am deaf and low vision, so I depend on captioning and transcription to access qualitative data. I felt I could trust these transcripts - automatic captioning or AI transcription can be okay but not great - knowing that a real person was listening and working with the audio gave me confidence that the data I was reading was accurate."
Screenshot of testimonial which reads: "I worked with AAT to transcribe a series of interviews and focus groups for a research project Il led. I learned about them through word of mouth from another researcher in my field--and I was so glad I did! Throughout the process, AAT staff were friendly, communicative, and flexible. Moreover, the quality of the final product was always excellent. I particularly appreciated the variety of services and price points AAT offers, which makes them a good fit for a wide range of project budgets and quality control needs. I also felt good about working with a company that aligned with my research team's values in terms of accessibility. I've recommended AAT to several colleagues for their own research projects and will continue to do so. Gabe Murchison, PhD, MPH (they/she/he), Assistant Professor, Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health

Save your seat today to get expert insight into the changing face of qualitative research and what challenges and opportunities it presents you, as a researcher, in 2026 and beyond

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