Dr. Christine Faith M. Avila, a full-time faculty member of the Communication Program, participated in the 41st Annual Qualitative Analysis Conference held on 18-20 June 2025 in the Delta Hotel in Québec City, Canada.
The conference was hosted by Wilfrid Laurier University with over 150 presenters gathering in Québec City from across Canada as well as from the United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia. With the theme, “The Temporality of Lived Experiences and Everyday Life,” it enlightened us to consider the socially-constructed nature of temporal experience, emphasizing the role of agency as people work to manipulate their own, and others’, experiences of time. When Michael Flaherty first introduced the concept of “time work,” the study of time had remained largely in the realm of philosophical, psychological, and organizational studies (efficiency studies), with a few other notable exceptions. However, attention to temporal issues has been steadily increasing in sociology. In her article about the future directions of symbolic interaction, in 2012, Kathy Charmaz encouraged the sociology of time as the next “horizon” for those interested in social organization. Flaherty brings our attention to the socially-constructed nature of temporal experience, emphasizing the role of agency as people work to manipulate their own, and others’, experiences of time.
The keynote speakers in the said conference include Dr. Michael Flaherty of Eckerd College and the University of South Florida, and featured speakers Dr. Eve Gardien of l’Université Rennes 2 and Dr. Carmen Poulin of the University of New Brunswick.
Dr. Avila presented two papers at the said conference. The first paper is an offshoot of her dissertation entitled “Lived Experience of Motherhood in the Digital Milieu: An Analysis of a Working Mom’s Facebook Posts” which was classified under the parallel session ‘Belonging’. It was presented on the first day of the conference. Interestingly, it generated a robust discussion among the scholars, particularly that it is an autoethnographic study of working mothers (who are seen as interesting objects of study in the conference). Dr. Sophie Lavoie and Dr. Gül Çalışkan expressed interest in elevating the study by framing it in the feminist activism perspective.
The second paper, entitled “Local Belief and Identity Negotiation: The Lived Experiences of EFL Teachers in an Asian Country,” classified under the parallel session ‘Migration’, was presented on the last day of the conference. It was the only paper that showcased an Asian perspective in migration and identity negotiation. The paper stirred discussion among Western colleagues on how Asian EFL teachers respond to the pressing local belief that native English speakers are more preferred and perceived as more capable when the reality on the ground speaks otherwise. Prof. Rabindra Chaulagain of Acadia University commends the study for sharing the lived experiences of Asian EFL teachers in another Asian country. Prof. Shirin Khayambashi of Toronto Metropolitan University shares the same commendation. They articulated that the study expanded their views on migration and identity negotiation.
Article and Photos by Dr. Christine Faith M. Avila
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