Patricia Leavy, PhD, is a leading researcher, acclaimed author, and public speaker. She has published more than twenty-five books, including Research Design: Quantitative, Qualitative, Mixed Methods, Arts-Based, and Community-Based Participatory Research Approaches, Handbook of Arts-Based Research, Method Meets Art, The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research, and the novels Spark, Blue, American Circumstance, and Low-Fat Love. She is also series creator and editor for seven book series with Oxford University Press and Brill-Sense, including the ground-breaking Social Fictions series. She has blogged for The Creativity Post, The Huffington Post, Mogul, and We Are the Real Deal and is cofounder and co-editor-in-chief of Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal. She has received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the National Art Education Association, and the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the State University of New York at New Paltz has established the "Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice."