Dance of the Invisible Insiders

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Researcher-Participant Relation(ship)s

Abstract

We used a trioethnographic approach to examine our experiences and perspectives as invisible insiders; someone that should/does/would belong to a particular group, but the group may not recognize their membership immediately. Being an invisible insider would mean that you would have to tell another member of the group that you “belong.” We generated the autobiographical data utilizing Pinar’s currere method in order to better understand how we decide to self disclose our invisible identities that can assist us in building rapport with research participants. We further examined the ethical considerations inherent in sharing our identities with research participants and in centering ourselves as researchers - a role of privilege that we already occupy.

Authors

• Leia K. Cain, University of Tennessee

• Juliana Capel Velasco, University of South Florida - Tampa

• Sara Barnard Flory, University of South Florida