I have had a Sage Research Methods case published! The full title (a bit of a mouthful) is: Using Feminist Autoethnographic Methods and Collective Narrative Inquiry to Reflect on the Lived Experiences of Early-Career Academics.
Sage Research Methods is an extensive library of resources—books, articles, videos, and exemplars—on all aspects of conducting research. The case studies, now numbering over a thousand, offer a behind the scenes look at the research process. Researchers share their mistakes and lessons with hindsight. I find them invaluable! The cases are paywalled, but if you have a university email you can register for a 30 day free trial (with access to the collection). Or check whether your have access through your institutional library.
If you are not part of a university, read on for a brief excerpt, noting that the 24-page case goes into far more detail and includes references, discussion questions and a quiz.
My research started with reading and loving works of feminist theory—bell hooks, Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, Audre Lorde, Jack Halberstam, Donna Haraway, Adrienne Rich, and, more recently, Sara Ahmed and Lauren Berlant. My personal experiences as a PhD candidate and early-career academic shaped the way in which I approached research, theoretically and practically, leading me to focus my curiosity on academic work and identities.
The case builds on individual and collaborative research (thanks to Jason Lodge, Kelly Matthews and Alana Mailey) and presents two qualitative feminist research approaches to investigate lived experiences of early-career academics: autoethnography and collective narrative inquiry. Autoethnography tells a story from the researcher’s perspective, whereas collective narrative inquiry challenges researcher objectivity and presents multiple participant voices to capture diverse lived experiences.
Practical challenges that I discuss include writing personal autoethnographies, insider research within my own institution, and combining research with academic activism. Writing one’s own experience, and including personal accounts, is risky because autoethnography is a method that renders the researcher vulnerable. Insider research, or researching within one’s own institution or community, is similarly fraught.
My background, positionality, and experience mean that I approach research into structural inequities within academic institutions and communities with emotions, vulnerabilities, and subjectivities that may come into play during data collection and analysis. I undertook the research as a part-time teaching-focused academic who took two periods of parental leave, cared for a child with a chronic illness unable to attend school, had surgery five times, managed a debilitating pain condition, and experienced the uncertainty of several university restructures.
My work as a researcher is fragmentary and slow. I often write at the kitchen table, in moments snatched between quotidian tasks. I am always interruptible. As an interrupted researcher, making the self the object of inquiry, researching the lived experiences of my “own kind” (early-career academics), and collaborating with colleagues to conduct research were all pragmatic choices. Co-researching has been key to my success as an interrupted researcher.
I end the case with three pieces of advice for those planning to conduct their own feminist autoethnographic and collective narrative research: cite thoughtfully, be a generous scholar, and look for wonder in research.
Image credits: Guzel Maksutova on Unsplash and lilartsy on Unsplash
The Slow Academic 