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Desiring more: complicating understandings of sexuality in research processes
Author(s) -
Diprose Gradon,
Thomas Amanda C,
Rushton Renee
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/area.12031
Subject(s) - human sexuality , meaning (existential) , process (computing) , field (mathematics) , phenomenon , sociology , epistemology , field research , affect (linguistics) , psychology , gender studies , social science , computer science , communication , philosophy , mathematics , pure mathematics , operating system
Reflexively considering one's position when undertaking research has become commonplace in geographic research and writing. This phenomenon is linked to the increasingly prevalent view that research is a co‐constituted process that involves the participant and researcher both constructing meaning. Yet, curiously, there has been relatively limited discussion around the role that sexual experiences play in the research process. In this article we draw on three experiences to illustrate the complex ways in which unwanted sexual encounters with research participants can affect the research process. Through these stories we show how sexual encounters shaped the research process, unsettled the way we understood and performed our own gendered sexuality, and challenged our understandings of what it means to be ‘good researchers’. We aim to initiate a wider discussion around how we can best prepare emerging researchers for, and support in the wake of, unexpected encounters of desire in the field.