Aligning Ethics and Methods of Scholarship With Our Publics

• In Event: Interrogating (Un)Masking in Qualitative Inquiry at the Intersections of Critical Geographies and Spatial Justice

Abstract

I interrogate disruptions, methodological and ethical, that arise because of masking in my work with immigrant families in a rural Midwestern community. My research methods are informed by publicly-engaged principles (Post, 2016, et al.) because of the resonance and messiness of “working in the world with all of its dimensions and directions” (Paulson, 2001, p.191). Anathema to public scholarship are “one off” research projects where researchers quickly disappear. Public scholarship depends on relationships, collaboratively addressing local challenges, and sustained acts of building trust and respect. There are inherent contradictions in practices of publicly engaged scholarship and the practice of anonymizing place/people. What is lost when public scholars mask identities of people and places (Jerolmack & Murphy, 2017)? As scholars in the public, do we allow participants and places to be turned into “useful theoretical examples” (Nespor, p.550), a first step toward generalization and disconnected research? When public scholars engage in masking, we risk eliminating rich particularities, cultural and linguistic affiliations, complexities of difference, and histories of participation evidenced in rich stories of people and place.

Author

• Carolyn A. Colvin, University of Iowa