Finding Meaning in the Margins: Survey Marginalia and Thinking Outside the Box in Health Services Research

Speaker: Jeffrey Morgan, UBC

Register to attend this seminar in-person (SPPH) or virtually (via Zoom). Jeffrey Morgan will present in-person.

Survey “marginalia” are the spontaneous notes, doodles, comments, and written addenda offered by participants in the margins of a survey. They exist outside the bounds of what was asked, and transgress the conventions of a survey instrument. Marginalia are an invitation to help us understand more, and understand better, the lives and experiences of participants, and shed light on the meaning and interpretation of data we collect. This seminar will present findings from a qualitative inquiry of marginalia collected as part of a HIV behavioural surveillance survey, providing insight into not only how marginalia are used by participants, but also into the lives of queer people. Furthermore, I will consider what marginalia can teach us about the significance of qualitatively derived insights in health services research, and understanding the relationship between data and phenomenon we seek to measure.

Jeffrey Morgan is a PhD candidate in the UBC School of Population and Public Health. He is interested in meta-science and action research, and his work has focused on developing strategies for engaging communities in knowledge production and interrogating values and biases in research. Jeffrey is affiliated with CHSPR, the BC Centre on Substance Use, Community-Based Research Centre, and is a Fellow with the W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics.

Register in advance for this seminar. Lunch will be provided for in-person registrants. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

This seminar is co-sponsored by the UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research and the W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics.