Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric Apr 2018 Open Access

Research as Care: A Shared Ownership Approach to Rhetorical Research in Trauma Communities

Maria Novotny ; John T. Gagnon

Abstract

In this article, we tell stories from our own research experiences to demonstrate the need for a set of methodological tools within Rhet/Comp that is more fully responsive to the ethical challenges of working with traumatized communities. Drawing on feminist and indigenous approaches, we propose a methodological toolkit for trauma-related research to reduce participant risk. In so doing, we situate shared ownership within a research as care framework and suggest five pillars for conducting trauma-related rhetorical research: (1) mediating academic use, (2) responsivity to re-living trauma, (3) recognizing participant motivations, (4) collaborative meaning-making, and (5) accounting for identity evolution. In sharing our stories about our research and the complications involved in negotiating researcher-participant dynamics in traumatized communities, we hope to help other researchers more effectively navigate similar territory in their own work.

Journal
Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
Published
2018-04-01
DOI
10.59236/rjv18i1pp71-101
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Open Access
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Topics
rhetorical criticism collaborative writing gender and writing
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