2026 ALISE Annual Conference

Diffractive ethnography has emerged as a generative approach to empirically engaging in a posthuman sensibility that centers its relationality and ethical commitments, making it highly compatible with research that aims to support the community-driven, practice-oriented, and often-changing nature of librarianship. Diffractive ethnography expands on critical and constructivist ethnography in their emphasis on thick descriptions, immersion in local contexts, and reflexivity. This poster will demonstrate how diffractive ethnography is being leveraged in my dissertation, the challenges that have emerged, and the ways in which it has shown to be compatible with ethical and transformative research approaches in LIS.