The International Institute of Qualitative Inquiry is based at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champain USA. Dr. Norm Denzin is the director of the center. The center sponsors an annual conference. The Sixth International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry will be held May 26-29, 2010.

I was pleased to learn that Drs. Greg Dimitriadis & George Kamberelis will be leading a workshop session entitled: The Critical Use of Focus Groups. Focus group research has gained tremendous popularity in many fields. I know that students attending my doctoral level qualitative research courses arrive interested in learning more about focus group methodologies. Personally, I have become fascinated with the ground breaking work done in marketing in constructing and expanding current focus group methodological procedures. I recently began including Mariampolski, H. (2006). Ethnography for marketers: a guide to consumer immersion. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications in the first course in my series. Students in marketing find the text to be accessible for those who are new to qualitative research. As one reviewer put it (Amazon): “Mariampolski’s book is accessible without being simplistic, detailed without being intimidating and enthusiastic without tub-thumping.”

Drs. Dimitriadis and Kamberelis promise to explore:

… focus groups as productive sites for developing rich understandings of social phenomena, for engaging in pedagogy and reflection, and for doing political work. These related activities are all central to conducting research in what Denzin and Lincoln have called the eighth moment of qualitative inquiry.