(REM1) Contemporary Vulnerabilities: Enacting and Exploring Vulnerable Moments in Research

Vulnerability is an inevitable part of qualitative research. Many researchers experience vulnerability at various stages of their research processes: we say the wrong thing, we experience a sudden shift in identity, we realize we’ve left someone behind, we begin to question ethics protocols that once felt fair and wish we had done things differently. Because vulnerability tends to be individualized, we are left with few solutions about how to manage and respond to the shared experience of vulnerability in research. This 90-minute workshop is an opportunity for graduate students, using the arts-based method of improvisation, to experience vulnerability in research and to be part of a larger, shared conversation about vulnerability in research. This conversation launches from the 2024 book Contemporary Vulnerabilities: Reflections on Social Justice Methodologies (University of Alberta Press).

Hosted by the book’s editors, this workshop includes authors who share their own stories of vulnerability in the field with graduate students as a way to mentor participants toward an increased awareness and cross-disciplinary dialogue that makes space for vulnerability as a critical part of research. By accepting and embracing the inevitability of vulnerability in research praxis, we expand our skills in doing less harm in research for all included. The workshop will be led by scholars with expertise in improvisation and will provide mentorship and experiential learning opportunities, including interdisciplinary scholar and member of the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. The workshop will involve 2-3 skits or scenarios that will focus on examples of research dilemmas or situations. Participants will be invited into the ‘skit’ or ‘scenario,’ offering the opportunity to be in the moment of vulnerability/dilemma. After each skit, participants will debrief and collaboratively discuss what ethical/uncomfortable/challenging moments arose and different ways to respond.

Together, we expand and make more accessible research methodologies of vulnerability and social justice. Ultimately, we ask: if we were to understand vulnerability as a shared human potential that is experienced contextually, relationally, and with embodied specificity, how might the research relation shift from an ethical responsibility to protect research participants to a capacity to respond and engage ethically in and through the practice of research?

Participants must be Congress delegates with the Canadian Sociological Association Conference and must apply for this workshop by May 17, 2024.  Click to complete the application form

The workshop will not be open to audience observation.

Tags: Community Engagement, Disabilities, Feminism, Research Methods

Organizers: Claire Carter, University of Regina, Caitlin Janzen, University of Calgary, Chelsea Jones, Brock University