“To be faithful to ourselves, we pay a price”: Jane F. Gilgun’s journey as a feminist qualitative social work practice researcher

Abstract

In 2021, Jane Frances Gilgun retired after nearly 40 years on the faculty at the University of Minnesota in Twin Cities, USA. This article—tracing a sliver of her rich intellectual biography—was crafted from a career interview conducted for by Debra Nelson-Gardell for QSW, in four sessions, between December 2021 and March 2022. Gilgun is known for her extensive writing on qualitative methodology in social work and its connection to the Chicago School as well as her decades-long feminist investigation of male violence. Starting from an ontological worldview in the inherent goodness of humankind, Gilgun seeks to explain deviations from that path. She has spent a lifetime at the intersecting seams of gender, violence, and abuse of power. Gilgun’s career offers lessons for a next generation. Her work reminds us of the importance of the deep historical connections between qualitative social work and the Chicago School. It illustrates the time and dedication required to seriously investigate difficult topics using qualitative methodologies. It offers a bittersweet reminder that choosing the path less traveled—or resisting dominant views in the academy—can be a solitary experience but that building intentional communities of like-minded souls serves as a protective factor. Finally, Gilgun’s career embodies the idea that serious research agendas are animated by large and important questions. Her scholarship has grappled head-on with the basic philosophical question of how evil can exist in a world rooted in goodness.