MEthodes créaTIves dans la recherche en Sciences humaines et SocialeS (METISS) seminar, session 1: sound and vision in research

For its first year, 2025-2026, the METISS, "MEthodes créaTIves dans la recherche en Sciences humaines et Sociales", is launching a series of meetings devoted to these approaches. The seminar is supported by three units MESOPOLHIS (CNRS, Aix-Marseille-UniversitéSciences Po Aix), IREMAM (CNRS, Aix-Marseille-Université) and URMIS (CNRS, Université Côte d'Azur, Université Paris Cité, IRD). The aim of the seminar is to provide a monthly meeting place for researchers, doctoral and post-doctoral students, students and research support engineers.

The sessions, lasting around 3 hours, are scheduled to take place between February and December 2025. Some of them will be combined with workshops (April 2025 and the start of the 2025-2026 academic year) and will be reserved for PhD and Masters students as a priority.

The format is hybrid (face-to-face/videoconference). Registration is free but compulsory. To register and obtain the video link, please contact : Anne Tricot (anne.tricot@univ-amu.fr) and/or Sylvie Chiousse (sylvie.chiousse@univ-amu.fr)

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Monday 24 February 2025 | 13h30-17h | MMSH (salle Germaine Tillion)

" Sound and vision in the survey "

• Anne TricotMESOPOLHIS (CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, Sciences Po Aix): presentation of the METISS seminar.
• Sarah Andrieu, URMIS Nice (CNRS, Université Côte d'Azur, Université Paris Cité, IRD): presentation of the Urmis "Ecritures alternatives" research group.
• Vanessa Gueno, IREMAM (CNRS, Aix-Marseille University) The links between the arts and sciences in social science and humanities research.
• Francesca Sirna, URMIS Nice (CNRS, Université Côte d'Azur, Université Paris Cité, IRD): "Caring for the pandemic: the experience of carers during Covid-19" How do you write and describe an exceptional event? Nine portraits of carers accompanied by the creation of sound bites recounting their migratory journeys and their activities during the pandemic. The project, conducted with the support of the Fabrique des écritures ethnographiques (MMSH), is one of the 2023 winners of the Aix-Marseille University grant for scientific culture projects. It is also supported by Aix-Marseille University's Institute of Public Health Sciences. Discussant : Constance de GourcyMESOPOLHIS (CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, Sciences Po Aix) 

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Don't miss a single session:

• Session 1: Sound and vision in the survey (Monday 24 February 2025, 13h30-17h, MMSH Germaine Tillion room)
• Session 2: Sounds, images and texts in the survey (Thursday 27 March 2025, 9.30am-12pm, MMSH salle Duby)
• Workshop session 3: Sensitive maps and narratives (Tuesday 29 April 2025, 13h30-17h, MMSH salle Duby | Wednesday 30 April 2025, 9h-17h, MMSH salle PAF)
• Session 4 (in connection with MESOPOLHIS axis 2 'Migrations and mobilities'): photo-elicitation, mental maps and geographical memory (Thursday 15 May 2025, 13:30-17:00, MMSH salle Duby)

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Find out more about the annual "MEthodes créaTIves dans la recherche en Sciences humaines et Sociales" (METISS) seminar:

Since the 2000s, there has been an explosion of work on creative research methods. In dialogue with the sciences, society and the arts, they are at the crossroads of social and human sciences disciplines (anthropology, sociology, geography, etc.) and are renewing the methods used to gather data and information. Not confined solely to the textual intelligence of the survey, a primary characteristic of these approaches is the use of a form of experimentation, a "methodological bricolage" that mobilises different media (drawings, photos, sound montages, games, maps, etc.). Designed and produced to suit the research, they act as "intermediary object(s)" in the researcher-participant interaction. These include (but are not limited to) visual methods (photo elicitation, participatory and/or mental mapping, commentary trails with photographs), immersive sound surveys, writing-based methods (writing workshops, notebooks), etc.

A second characteristic of these approaches is that they mobilise sensitive experience in the investigation, which refers in part to vulnerability and the experience of situations of violence, social and/or environmental disaster, or even domination. It also refers to our perceptive capacities, i.e. our senses and our representations. Making room for the sensitive means taking seriously the subjectivity of people, whose knowledge and skills are no less rational and objectifiable. In the final analysis, we are shifting the researcher's position towards the co-production of knowledge.

The presentations will look at what goes on behind the scenes in research, i.e. how methods are developed and their relevance to the research process.

Organising Committee :

• Anne Tricot, Sylvie Chiousse, Constance De Gourcy MESOPOLHIS (CNRS, Aix-Marseille-Université, SciencesPo Aix)
• Saïd Belguidoum IREMAM (CNRS, Aix-Marseille-Université) 
• Francesca Sirna URMIS Nice (CNRS, Université Côte d'Azur, Université Paris Cité, IRD).