About me

Karen O’Reilly is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Loughborough University, regular visiting Professor at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, and Deputy Chair of Trustees for the Sociological Review Foundation. She is also a freelance Qualitative Social Research Trainer, providing bespoke and standard courses.

I have taught ethnographic and qualitative methods for over 30 years, including the Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Collection and Analysis, and the Swiss Summer School in Social Science Methods, in Lugano. I taught qualitative research at the Universities of Aberdeen, Essex, Loughborough and Oxford, as well as in universities in Germany, Hong Kong, Norway and Switzerland. I have also delivered training for (among others) UK Parliament, Department of Work and Pensions, Pearson Education, charities, private research organisations, HMRC, the UK Home Office, and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.

I provide regular qualitative research workshops via EventBrite. Let me know if you would like me to provide something in particular

Workshops include:
Qualitative Interviewing
Designing a qualitative study
Creative techniques
Interviews with children and vulnerable groups/sensitive topics
Ethnography and Participant Observation
Thematic (interpretive) Analysis
Grounded Theory
Writing Qualitative Research
Interpretive Analysis
Sampling
The quality of qualitative research

News: My book Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit was published by Policy Press in March 2025. I post news and insights here from time to time. There is also a Podcast: Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone

Other News:

Rural Labour Migrants Johan Fredrik Rye and Karen O’Reilly (eds) (2020) International Labour Migration to Europe’s Rural Regions. Routledge

Brexit and Brits Abroad To find out about our recently completed research into what Brexit means for UK nationals living in the EU27, visit the project website.

Reflexivity as Practice Benson, M. and O’Reilly, K. (2021) Reflexive Practice in Live Sociology: Lessons fromresearching Brexit in the lives of British Citizens living in the EU-27, Qualitative Research

Latest book on Lifestyle Migration Benson, M. and O’Reilly, K. (2018) Lifestyle Migration and Colonial Traces in Malaysia and Panama Palgrave

British in Spain Listen to me talking about British in Spain with Instituto Cervantes in Manchester https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sjnLYeJ9d8

Karen is a highly experienced ethnographer whose many publications include two widely cited books on ethnography: Ethnographic Methods (Routledge, 2nd ed. 2012) and Key Concepts in Ethnography (Sage, 2009), and a monograph The British on the Costa del Sol (Routledge 2000).