Laura Ellingson - Author Bio

Author Bio

Laura L. Ellingson, Ph.D., is the Patrick A. Donohoe, S.J. Professor of Communication at Santa Clara University and a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association.

Her passion for methodological innovation infuses her research and writing. In addition to over 50 journal articles and chapters in edited collections, she is the author or co-author of six books, including an ethnographic study of communication in a geriatric oncology program (Communicating in the Clinic, 2005) and two co-authored books (with Dr. Patty Sotirin) on aunts, nieces, and nephews in extended and chosen families (Aunting, 2010) and of aunts' representation in popular culture (Where the Aunts Are, 2013). Laura enlarges possibilities for methodological innovation through the development of a crystallization framework for qualitative research (Engaging Crystallization in Qualitative Research, 2009), articulation of embodied research strategies (Embodiment in Qualitative Research, 2017), and reimagining of data collection practices as lively data engagement (with Dr. Patty Sotirin; Making Data in Qualitative Research: Engagements, Ethics, and Entanglements, 2020). She teaches courses on qualitative methods, health and sexuality, and gender and communication.

Currently, she is writing a memoir of her own 30+ years of living with late effects of cancer treatment, which are chronic illnesses and conditions caused by chemotherapy, radiation, surgeries, and medications used to treat cancer. The book weaves her post-cancer adventures--the good, the bad, and the complicated--with current medical and social research about the ways in which late effects inevitably shape the lives of long-term cancer survivors.

Selected Works

Scholarly

Making Data in Qualitative Research

Making Data in Qualitative Research offers a generative alternative to outdated approaches to data collection. By reimagining methods through a model of data engagement, qualitative researchers consider what is at stake—ethically, methodologically, and theoretically—when we co-create data and imagine possibilities for doing data differently.

Embodiment in Qualitative Research

Embodiment in Qualitative Research connects critical, interdisciplinary theorizing of embodiment with creative, practical strategies for engaging in embodied qualitative
research. Ellingson equips qualitative researchers not only to resist the mind-body split in principle but to infuse their research with the vitality that comes from embracing knowledge production as deeply embedded in sensory experience.

Where the Aunts Are: Family, Feminism, and Kinship in Popular Culture

While the aunt is one of the most iconic and beloved figures in popular culture, the societal role and import of real-life contemporary aunts are difficult to pin down. Surveying characters from Aunt Bee and Auntie Em to Bernie Mac's Aunt Wanda and House of Payne's Aunt Ella and countless living, breathing aunts across the country, Where the Aunts Are re-visions the ideals of family, femininity, and kinship and, in the process, offers a hopeful and progressive recognition of the multiple possibilities of womanhood in modern culture.

Aunting: Cultural Practices that Sustain Family and Community Life

We think of the aunt not as a person or even a role, but as a practice, something people do: aunt is a verb. In addition to preserving and strengthening family bonds, aunts often initiate or participate in the formation of chosen kinship ties that extend family networks, blurring distinctions among family, friends, neighbors, and significant others. Aunting creatively constructs and maintains kinship connections and networks.

Engaging Crystallization in Qualitative Research: An Introduction

Engaging Crystallization in Qualitative Research, the first "how to" book to both explain and demonstrate crystallization methodology, offers a framework for blending grounded theory and other social scientific analyses with creative representations of data, such as narratives, poetry, and film. Author Laura L. Ellingson explores relevant epistemological questions that arise when crossing methodological boundaries, provides detailed steps for design and planning, offers guidelines for improving both social scientific and creative/artistic writing, and suggests strategies for targeting publication outlets for multigenre representations.

Communicating in the Clinic: Negotiating Frontstage and Backstage Teamwork

This book addresses the question of how health care teams function on a daily basis through an innovative ethnography of communication in an interdisciplinary geriatric team. To illustrate the complexity of teamwork, backstage communication processes among team members are richly described, their effects on frontstage communication with patients delineated,m and a model of embedded teamwork developed. The presentation enables readers to explore the relationships among epistemology, methodology, and writing practices in health care.

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