Conversations editorial

What could it mean to develop research questions “on-the-go,” in conversation with your research subjects, as living, breathing, feeling, thinking beings? And where could a particularly feminist concern with such a question lead us? Or perhaps where would we begin? We might want to start with the assumption that the feminist researcher does not enter the field as a completed subject, but rather strives to occupy a liminal space where there are no secure bearings to hold on to. This process necessarily involves an openness to unlearning one's own certainties and privileges, even one's own identifications. The two pieces gathered in this Conversations section invite us to think and practice these forms of unlearning by taking us into engaging stories about how academic research can also be an opportunity for a responsible reframing and repositioning of our “selves.” This can only happen through the researcher's explicit decision to accept their imbrication with their subjects of study.

Bin Wang reflects on his positionality as a self-identified cis-male scholar and outsider studying feminist activism in China. He considers whether those identifications hamper or facilitate the building of trust in the researcher–subject relationship. In the course of his work, he realizes that his positionality and self-identifications have little meaning prior to entering the field. Rather, they are shaped and shift through his interactions with the feminists whom he encounters – who, in turn, are shaped and shift with him. By allowing his “self” to be problematized in the course of his research, he discovers that identifications that he previously thought to be impediments have instead become entry points into some difficult conversations and themes that might have not otherwise emerged.

Ayelet Harel-Shalev makes the uncomfortable decision to inquire into the many power hierarchies that produce voices and silences. She offers a feminist methodology that might help us to (un)learn the complex politics and ethics of speaking up and silencing in contexts marked by structural and/or systematized violence. In reflecting on the results of her research using the Listening Guide methodology, the author challenges any simplistic assessment of the meanings and intentions behind women's voices and silences, aiming instead to unearth the contrapuntality that goes into the creation of any autobiographical narrative. In deciding to do so, the researcher points to the importance of grappling with the plurivocality of her own identifications.

The Conversations section is an innovative intervention by IFJP which aims to offer space and opportunity to make strong theoretical and practical contributions to feminist debates that do not necessarily take standard academic forms. It may include interviews with prominent or early-career scholars, practitioners, and activists; narratives and short stories; photo essays, artistic pieces, and poetry; film readings; conference reports; and other “non-traditional” modes of scholarly writing.

Interested authors should submit their articles via ScholarOne: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rfjp. Please also upload a biographical note and five keywords. Make sure to edit it thoroughly for language and clarity, format it to correspond to the Taylor & Francis guidelines, and identify it as a submission for the Conversations section.

For further information, please refer to the journal's FAQ page at: https://www.ifjpglobal.org/submit-to-us/#anchor_conversations_shortcut.

Enquiries should be directed to both Conversations Editors.