David Carlson
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444A Farmer Building 1050 S Forest Mall Tempe, AZ 85287
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Mail code: 1811Campus: Tempe
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David Lee Carlson is a Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation. His primary areas of research include qualitative inquiry, curriculum studies, and gender and sexuality studies in education. He works primarily with the thought of the French intellectual Michel Foucault and contemplates in his work how pedagogy plays a part in crafting life as a work of art. The exploration and application of theoretical perspectives drive his work. Professor Carlson investigates the impact of specific post-humanists theories in qualitative methods. His work also investigates how art, philosophy, and literature operate in research-creation. Dr. Carlson sees qualitative research and educational research primarily as that which attunes to the subtle, nuanced, and textured elements of life, language, and labor. As such, it is both a field of study and a collection of approaches and perspectives that aid scholars in understanding the material complexities of human life and their endeavors. Qualitative methods can be used to satisfy the impulse for certainty in knowledge production, but they are primarily employed to explore and foster practices and perspectives of diversity and equity. Qualitative approaches and perspectives can be used to look at life-in-motion in its socio-political contexts as a part of the humanities. Current research topics include Post-Qualitative Inquiry as Uprootedness; Michel Foucault's Lectures and Educational Research; The Uses of Theory in Educational Research; Michel Foucault's Genealogical Analytic; and Rethinking "Algorithmic" Reasonings in Educational Research Methodologies. Dr. Carlson is the 2024 recipient of the Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation Excellence in Research Achievement Award.
Most Recent Book:
Michel Foucault and Gender and Sexualities: Friendship as Ascesis (2019).
- Ed.D. English Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, NY 2005. Dissertation Title: Producing a Sovereign Self: Portfolios and the Ownership of Scholastic Bodies. Dissertation Committee: Dr. James Albright (Advisor), Dr. Nancy Lesko, Dr. John Broughton, and Dr. John Baldacchino
- M.A. Literature, American University, Washington, DC 1996 (British Romanticism)
- B.A. English, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 1992
- English Literature and English Law, Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Oxford University, UK 1990-1991
Guiding Research Questions:
- How can notions and practices of science be redefined in qualitative inquiry?
- How can post-structuralists theories reshape qualitative inquiry?
- What is the use(s) of theory in education?
- How can art and philosophy inform practices in critical qualitative research?
The field of qualitative inquiry is currently at a crossroads. Although it has relied on post-positivists methodologies and methods to legitimize the field, it has currently began to critique those same practices. It is important to try to think about how to untether ourselves from threads of colonialism, Western epistemological frameworks, and the impulse for certainty and stability in knowledge production. Professor Carlson has been exploring with what it means to be "uprooted" from those perspectives and examines how art (e.g. literature, painting, sculptor, dance, music) can lead to more creative methodologies and methods that add nuance, texture, and density to qualitative research. His work builds on post-structuralist perspectives and includes additional theories of post-humanism, affect theory, and new materialism. He is currently finishing up a book on the Collège de France Lectures of Michel Foucault and educational research as well how literary theory can inform perspectives and approaches in qualitative research.
Selected Books (published)
Carlson, D.L., Vasquez, A., & Romero, A. (Eds.) (2023). Writing and the articulation of post-qualitative research. Routledge.
Wells, T. C., Carlson, D. L., & Koro-Ljungberg, M. (Eds.)(2020). Intra-public intellectualism: critical qualitative inquiry in the academy. Myers Education Press.
Carlson, D. L., & Albright, J. (2012). Composing a Care of the Self: A Critical History of Writing Assessment in Secondary English Education. Sense Publishers.
Selected Peer Reviewed Articles
Carlson, D.L. (2022). A sketchbook on seduction, or the urging into the indefatigable unknown. Reconceptualizing Education Research Methodologies. 13(1) https://doi.org/10.7577/rerm.4924
Carlson, D.L. & Koro-Ljungberg, M. (2017). (Re)mixing Foucault and Deleuze: Power Games in Critical Qualitative Research. International Journal of Research in Qualitative Inquiry. 10(4), 411-429.
Blumenfeld-Jones, D., & Carlson, D.L. (2017). Trois Chaise, ABR and the possibility of ‘thinking again.’ International Journal of Education and the Arts.
*Sweet, J.D., & Carlson, D.L. (2017). A Story of Becoming: Trans* Equity as Ethnodrama. Qualitative Inquiry.
*Sweet, J.D. & Carlson, D.L. (2017). Teaching trans*: Transparent and English Language Arts. Bank Street Papers, 37. https://www.bankstreet.edu/occasional-paper-series/37/part-ii/teaching-…
Carlson, D.L., & Linville, D. (2016). The social importance of a kiss: A Honnethian reading of David Levithan’s, Two Boys Kissing. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37(6), 887-901.
Loytonen, T., Koro-Ljungberg, M., Carlson, D.L., Orange, A. & Cruz, J. (2015). A pink experiment. Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology, 6(1), 23-42.
Koro-Ljungberg, M., Carlson, D.L, Tesar, M., & Anderson, K. (2015). Methodology brut: Philosophy, ecstatic thinking, and some other (unfinished) things. Qualitative Inquiry.
*Hollis, M. A, *Aletheiani, D. R., Carlson, D. L., & Ewbank, A. D. (2014). ‘Keeping up the good fight’: The said and unsaid in Flores v. Arizona. Policy Futures in Education, 12(3).
Courses
2025 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
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DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
2025 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
COE 503 | Intro to Qualitative Research |
DCI 691 | Seminar |
2024 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
COE 503 | Intro to Qualitative Research |
DCI 691 | Seminar |
2024 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
2024 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 706 | Academic Writing |
DCI 691 | Seminar |
2023 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
COE 503 | Intro to Qualitative Research |
TEL 707 | Reading the Research |
2023 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
2023 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 702 | Transdisciplinary Seminar II |
DCI 691 | Seminar |
2022 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 701 | Transdisciplinary Seminar I |
2022 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
2022 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
2021 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
COE 503 | Intro to Qualitative Research |
2021 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
2021 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
COE 503 | Intro to Qualitative Research |
DCI 691 | Seminar |
2020 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 691 | Seminar |
COE 503 | Intro to Qualitative Research |
DSC 592 | Research |
2020 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
2020 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
DCI 799 | Dissertation |
DCI 792 | Research |
DCI 784 | Internship |
DCI 790 | Reading and Conference |
DCI 791 | Seminar |
SPE 799 | Dissertation |
COE 503 | Intro to Qualitative Research |