About us
The Document Research Network was founded by Dr Aimee Grant (Cardiff University) and Dr George Jennings (Cardiff Metropolitan University), with the aim of providing a collaborative space in which to bring together researchers who are using documents as data. In doing so, it is hoped that:
  • it will be easier for researchers to make connections with other academics using documents in their research, increasing interdisciplinarity
  • publications which use documents as data can be more easily identified
  • those who are new to using documents as data can be provided with methodological and theoretical support
  • By not being associated with anyone professional body, we can cross disciplinary boundaries
 
We define documents in their widest possible sense to include online and offline spaces, and texts that include images, words or both.  We also consider documents to include those created by participants for researchers in the research field.  Including, but not limited to:

  • Policy and historical documents
  • Photographs and images
  • Everyday artefacts, like posters and flyers
  • Newspaper and other media content
  • Online content, including social media, forums, memes etc

Meet The Team

Dr Aimee Grant

Co-founder
​
@DrAimeeGrant
[email protected]

Dr George Jennings

Co-founder

​@DrGBJennings
​[email protected]

Maria Pournara
​

PhD representative


@MariaPournara
[email protected]
Aimee has a strong interest in using documents as data.  She is still learning about the many different ways that others use documents in their research.  In 2018, Aimee's book Doing EXCELLENT social research with documents: Practical examples and guidance for qualitative researchers will be published by Routledge.

George is passionate about qualitative research, and is particularly interested in how using documents as data can enrich multimodal studies. He has undertaken research using online and translated documents as part of his investigations into martial arts cultures and pedagogies.

Maria is very interested in the use of documents as data in criminological research. The spine of her PhD is a qualitative analysis of organisational documents and newspaper articles. She is passionate about promoting training and building an interdisciplinary network of researchers who share an interest in textual data.