Exposure Without Shelter: When Visibility Becomes Vulnerability in Data Disclosure

• In Event: Everything Ain’t for Everybody: Refusal as a Methodological Practice of Purposeful Data Disclosure

Abstract

This paper examines the ethical complexities of conducting research with Black male student-athletes in a sociopolitical climate defined by heightened exposure through Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) agreements and NCAA transfer portal dynamics. Framed by Black intellectual traditions and critical race theory, the study explores how visibility can offer opportunity while simultaneously intensifying vulnerability. The objective is to interrogate what ethical research looks like when participants’ public personas are already under constant surveillance and commodification. Using qualitative methods, the author designed a participatory project involving photo narratives and oral histories with student-athletes engaged in global study-abroad programs. Data sources include participant-generated photographs, recorded reflections, and ethnographic fieldnotes. These materials were co-constructed with research consultants—student-athletes intentionally framed as collaborators rather than subjects.

Findings highlight participants’ desire for multidimensional representation that transcends athletic identity. Yet, many expressed concern over further stereotyping or institutional scrutiny if their stories were misrepresented or overexposed. In response, the researcher engaged in selective disclosure—choosing to withhold emotionally intimate narratives and instead creating storytelling spaces that centered participant agency and dignity. Refusal to publish certain content emerged not as omission but as an ethical act of relational care. This paper contributes to scholarship on critical qualitative research, athletic identity, and ethical visibility. It repositions refusal as a necessary methodological stance—particularly when working with hyper-visible populations whose humanity is often flattened into spectacle. By foregrounding the “student” in student-athlete, the work advances a model of research as care, co-construction, and resistance to extractive norms.

Author

• Devin Walker, Cabrillo College