Reflexivity, Positionality, and Feminist Paradigms in the Research Settings of Hospitals and Prisons: Similarities and Differences

• In Event: Advances in Qualitative Methods III

Abstract

Hospitals and prisons are controlled and highly surveilled settings. Both types of facilities are also components of much larger industrial complexes that are entangled with patriarchal power, white privilege, capitalism, and bodily control. Such forces run contrary to feminist tenets of reflexivity, positionality, subjectivity, and social justice. In this piece, two qualitative, feminist scholars draw on autoethnographies to explore ethical issues, logistical concerns, and vicarious trauma that accompany research in these settings. We argue that conducting research inside the Health Industrial Complex and the Prison Industrial Complex is much more alike than it is different.

Authors

• Marisela Velazquez, California State University, Dominguez Hills

• Ami E. Stearns, Coastal Carolina University