The Ship of Theseus: Unsilencing and Methodological Considerations When Working With Trans Populations

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 1:15 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Posthuman and Postfoundational Modes of Inquiry Across Educational Settings (Table 6)

Abstract

Unsilencing is one way to describe methodologies that disrupt hegemonic erasure of marginalized populations. I take on unsilencing, a concept from Trouillot (1995), as a tool to de-center myself, a straight cisgender woman, while telling my participant/co-author’s story and experience as a member of the trans community. This piece approaches unsilencing in two ways– as a way to ethically work with populations where a researcher has an outsider identity and to subvert traditional research methodologies. Unsilencing is explored through my narrative analysis that presents findings in the form of a documentary script. I conclude with recommendations for future research guided by unsilencing.

Author

• Gretchen Cook, University of Tennessee