Laboratory for Phenomenological Research

05/27/2026

In this new open access FQS article, Lab Head Thomas Byrne engages with Max van Manen - one of the most influential figures in phenomenological qualitative research. Byrne argues that van Manen misrepresents some of the most basic tenets of Husserl’s philosophy. The article offers a broader critique of how phenomenology is taught, repeated, and authorized in qualitative research.

05/14/2026

The lab’s new article demonstrates how Sartre’s account of the look, rather than Foucault’s medical gaze, can guide our understanding of patient interactions with doctors. The article is the first published study to employ our own new method, Phenomenologically Directed Qualitative Research (PDQR).
If you need access, feel free to message Thomas Byrne or email him at [email protected]

Contemporary health research often examines patient objectification, patient self-objectification, and good patient performance as separate concerns. Treating t...

05/07/2026

We held a lovely lab dinner to celebrate our publications and to end the academic year!

05/01/2026

We are excited to share that Karin Dahlberg and Helena Dahlberg have published a direct response to Dr. Thomas Byrne's recent article on phenomenology, philosophy, and qualitative research.
This is a significant moment for our lab’s work. Dahlberg and Dahlberg are among the most influential scholars in phenomenological qualitative research, especially through their development of Reflective Lifeworld Research. Their response means that Dr. Byrne’s critique has become part of a major scholarly conversation about how phenomenological philosophy should inform empirical research.

As long as there has been phenomenological empirical research, the relationship to the philosophical foundation has been a matter of dispute. One such example w...

04/27/2026

Lab Head Thomas Byrne's new article out open access. The article examines how Husserl’s reductions are often operationalized within qualitative research. The paper contributes to the lab’s broader work on developing clearer and more philosophically precise approaches to phenomenologically informed empirical inquiry.

The phenomenological and eidetic reductions have long been misunderstood and misused in qualitative research, hindering cumulative and cooperative progress. To ...

03/28/2026

Had a wonderful lab outing for an escape room and mini golf!

02/16/2026

Lab Head Thomas Byrne has just published the open access article "Clark Moustakas’ Counterfeit Husserl", in The Qualitative Report. The paper argues that one of qualitative research’s most canonized methodological sources is philosophically unreliable and that its widespread use has shaped the field around a misreading of Husserl.

This paper critically examines Clark Moustakas’s presentation of Husserl in Phenomenological Research Methods. I argue that Moustakas’s account misrepresents two core elements of Husserl’s phenomenology – intentionality and the transcendental reduction – in ways that directly compromise th...

02/11/2026

The Laboratory for Phenomenological Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is pleased to host Dr. Ellie Anderson (Pomona College) for our next online lecture in our Phenomenology Lecture Series.

All are welcome to attend. Registration is required:
bit.ly/Anderson2026

02/07/2026

We are excited to share the recording of a recent talk by Matthew Ratcliffe on lived experience and expertise.

In this lecture, Ratcliffe takes up a question that sits at the center of phenomenological research today: how should we understand expertise when lived experience is central to the inquiry? Drawing on examples from psychiatry and clinical practice, he reflects on how the roles of practitioner, patient, and philosopher differ, overlap, and sometimes come into tension.

The talk offers a careful and accessible account of how phenomenology can respect experiential authority without collapsing philosophical reflection into first-person report, and without subordinating experience to professional knowledge. Anyone interested in phenomenology, psychiatry, qualitative research, or the ethics of expertise will find this discussion especially valuable.

The Laboratory for Phenomenological Research was proud to host Professor Matthew Ratcliffe (University of York) for this talk. ...

01/30/2026

Student researcher spotlight: F***y Smithing. About her experiences in the lab, F***y said:
"The Laboratory for Phenomenological Research has been one of the best opportunities that presented itself to me throughout my college career. As a double psychology and philosophy major, joining a research laboratory on campus had always been one of my goals, but I didn’t imagine that I would get be a part of a lab so unique and important as this one. The lab examines and gives a voice to the lived experience of people who are often going through large life changes and challenges. It gives an avenue for those who would like to have their stories heard but can struggle to find a meaningful way to do so. A testament to the importance of work that we are doing is frequently represented by the gratitude expressed by our participants. The community at the Laboratory for Phenomenological Research cultivates a space in which I feel heard, valued for my ideas, and challenges my thinking about some of the most important topics in life!"