Patricia Leavy, Ph.D., is an independent sociologist and bestselling author. She has published over thirty-five books, earning commercial and critical success in both nonfiction and fiction, and her work has been translated into many languages. Among her book publications, she is the author of Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice, now in its third edition, and Research Design: Quantitative, Qualitative, Mixed Methods,
Arts-Based, and Community-Based Participatory Approaches. She has received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2018, she was honored
by the National Women's Hall of Fame and SUNY-New Paltz established the "Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice." Her website is www.patricialeavy.com.