A cautionary tale: Trauma, ethics and mentorship in research in the USA

Abstract

It has become commonplace in academia to encourage students from underrepresented groups to provide insider perspectives on experiences of marginality. Yet, there has been little discourse on how painful and traumatic this kind of vulnerability can be for students, or how academic advisors can best support students exploring potentially triggering researcher topics. In this article, we explore trauma, ethics and mentorship in graduate student research. To begin, Shea, a graduate student and transgender woman, describes the emotional and psychological trauma she experienced while chronicling her medical and social transition from male to female as part of her graduate research study. In section two, Kate discusses the difficulty of mentoring students experiencing research-related trauma and urges members of the academy to become more active in developing strategies to support students through such hardships. The purpose of this piece is not only to spark a frank discussion about the very real potential for trauma while conducting research on marginalized populations, but to also act as a cautionary tale by providing an example of an unexpectedly traumatic research experience from the points of view of the both mentor and the mentee.

Keywords:

• Autoethnography
• Ethics
• Mentorship
• Trauma
• Transgender

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Angel City Derby, Chica-Go Lightning, Rachel Rotten, the members of the TIGER Derby Collective, and the Women's Flat Track Derby Association for helping to make this research possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shea Ellen Gilliam is a current Ph.D. student with the Spatial Science Institute at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Her current research focuses include spatial epidemiology, surveillance ethics, remote sensing, and feminist research methods.

Kate Swanson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at San Diego State University, California. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, Canada. While her research interests are broad, she currently focuses on migration in Latin America and the U.S./Mexico border region. She has published her work in a variety of journals including: Annals of the Association of American Geographers; Antipode; Gender, Place & Culture; and Urban Geography. Her teaching largely focuses on critical social and environmental issues around the world.