Introduction by Croakey: From research ethics to mental health, queer theory to decolonisation, and tips for disrupting oppressive systems, #PhDVoices contributors recently shared wide-ranging insights into their research and academic experiences when they took over the reins of Croakey’s curated, rotated account, @WePublicHealth on X.
Below is a summary of the discussions shared by Erin Fitzpatrick, Toya Ricci, Xavier Mills, Khwanruethai Ngampromwongse and Penelope Smith, picking up conversations shared at the account in 2023.
Penelope Smith writes:
Our #PhdVoices tag team are really looking forward to hosting this week. We intend to continue the conversation that was started this time last year when we first hosted. In 2023 our group was made up of Penelope Smith, Erin Fitzpatrick, Toya Ricci and Lib Richardson.
In 2023 we designed the week around sharing about our own individual PhD projects and also things that matter to us – such as stipends.
To be able to tweet about my current #PhD status I revisited my tweets from a year ago when we first did #PhdVoices. Reading this thread I am truly shocked in how much has occurred in a single year.
In the #PhdVoices tweets from 2023 I had just moved to #lutruwita – since then I have moved many times including being on #Ngunnawal land back to #WurundjeriWoiWurrung land back to #lutruwita then #Bunurongland and now #DjaDjaWurrung land.
Next month I move to Wangaratta in regional Victoria, the land of the Bpangerang People to work with Northeast Health Wangaratta for my PhD research: “Learning from newly arrived International Health Workers about their experience working in a rural health service in Vic”.
I was employed by Public Health Association of Australia to be the project manager for the First Nations Collective CoDesign Project.
I have been able to volunteer my time to support the first ever Indigenous president of the World Federation of Public Health Associations and to work with my students to assist with a webinar about decolonisation and public health. And volunteer my time to mentor an incredible young woman to successfully engage with and complete her higher education studies.
Final #PhdVoices thread for the night – @lopeypen again, sharing about my PhD project (I know you’ve all been waiting for this thread).
As a non-Indigenous woman of colour, Asian Filipino, in public health, I have had a long interest in exploring what it means to be a settler of colour, particularly within the health sector. Pondering how we sit within the conversation.
In the first year of my PhD, when the opportunity to read, explore, build my knowledge and understanding presented itself I was exposed to research in #GlobalCareChain #VulnerableBody #Pluriverse & the concept of #IntrasettlerCompetition.
This learning was complimented by deepening my understanding of settler colonialism by reading from the writings of Patrick Wolfe @victoriauninews and learning from such brilliant thinkers such as those a part of Community Identity & Displacement Research Network.
This process and particularly this article from Chen led me to focusing my PhD research on newly arrived International health workers – “Un)Making the international student a settler of colour: a decolonising autoethnography”.
The backdrop to my first year of the #PhD was the Independent review of health practitioner regulatory settings, with the final report released just before my Confirmation of Candidature process began in earnest.
Suddenly my research was timely.
At the end of 2023 I found myself struggling with the scope of my PhD and a difficulty to imagine it without a site or location. It was an online meeting with the then @PhaaDei co-convenor @kristenglenist1 that changed everything (and showed again the value of networks).
In this meeting Dr Kristen @UniMelbMDHS #RuralHealth listened to my vision for my PhD and my future. She then introduced me to some of the most community minded women I’ve ever met working at Northeast Health Wangaratta.
I have never looked back. I have a research site and a new home.
So now I have two major goals
- successful completion of my Ethics for both UTAS and Northeast Health Wangaratta
- to connect and create relationships in the town I will call my home for the next year.
I am excited but also terrified. Ethics seems to be a line in the sand for your work and I am nervous about making the right decisions. Guidance from supervisors, research advisors but also conversations with my fellow PhDs are important at this time.
Tomorrow afternoon I will continue to explore the value of building protective networks in your PhD with @toyaricci
Further reading
Locating Asian Racialisation and the Asian Subject in a Settler Colony
Settlers of Color and “Immigrant” Hegemony: “Locals” in Hawai‘i
On connection
I have loved that Toya, Xavier, Erin, Khwanruethai and Libby (last year) agreed to the #PhdVoices adventure and that @MelissaSweetDr supported it.
It is very natural for me to think about connection. This comes from my upbringing, my culture, my personality, but also from working for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Prior to working for First Nations community (2006 onwards) and connecting with my Filipino bloodlines (2012 onwards), connections and networks were very individualised, sometimes feeling a little hollow, which didn’t sit well with me.
It was @SonnChristopher @Raw_Toast @CIDRNVU who gave me the keys to unlocking firstly what critical praxis was and showed me how our relationships in research, founded in safety and trust, enable critical praxis to occur. They took my foundational knowledge and gave me a new world.
A key step to producing quality ethical research is through interactions with other scholars.
For example both @xvmls and @ngampromwongse have deep knowledge in theories I know little of queer theory and decolonisation. Interactions with them change my view.
But this interaction is much more impactful when we create space to do so as a group – as we have in preparation for #PhdVoices, or as I have experienced in my two reading groups that I am part of presently: Vulnerable & Practical Justice Reading group and Asians in the Colony
While there are many reading groups around for PhD candidates to join, I recommend seeking out space where you feel safe to take chances, to learn something new, to be challenged. The two reading groups I am part of both scare me and thrill me.
On mental health
Sharing this afternoon feels risky, despite knowing very few people will see it. However I have learnt from some dear friends around me how important this kind of vulnerability is, particularly for my #PhD peers.
A piece of advice commonly given to PhD candidates is: do not pick a topic too personal. Last year when I was part of #PhdVoices I reflected that despite actively selecting a topic distant from me, it was in fact more directly linked than I could know before research.
This year the deep learning of #GlobalCareChain #VulnerableBody #SettlerOfColour research has transformed my sense of self, identity. It has been enlightening but also devastating for me. I found the more I read the more distressed I became. I didn’t know what to do.
As noted by both @xvmls and @ngampromwongse this week, navigating the separation of scholarly work from yourself is complex and deeply personal. It has been my PhD peers, specifically my #AsianAustralian peers interested in settler colonial conversations, who have saved me.
This successful method for me however relies on being able to:
- locate people similar to you
- create a meaningful, ongoing, trusting connection
- intentionally share your experience
- make space to listen, discuss with care
This can be very difficult.
Alongside of this, the financial life of a #Phd and my research site being on the mainland has meant I have lived in a total of 10 places in ACT, Victoria and Tasmania in one year. While housesitting and staying with friends has helped financially, it’s meant my mental health has paid a price.
Since we last hosted @WePublicHealth #PhdVoices I am both astounded with what I’ve achieved, survived and exhausted. I find myself searching for ways to rest, heal and reinvigorate so I can successfully complete the PhD.
Penelope Smith’s PhD title: Learning from newly arrived transnational health workers about their experiences working in the Australian Health System
Toya Ricci writes:
My ancestors were enslaved and brought to the US and Puerto Rico. Their labour, cultural and economic contributions enriched not just the US, but the Western world in ways that cannot be truly quantified.
Today I am going to share about my research and join up with @LopeyPen this afternoon to talk about opportunities for PhD students.
My research explores the decolonisation of sexual pleasure histories, centring Indigenous and marginalised perspectives to challenge colonial narratives and create spaces for transformation and healing in sexual health.
Highlighting the impact of colonial power structures on identity and knowledge, my study examines diverse historical and cultural contexts to understand the rich tapestry of human experiences related to sexual pleasure.
Decolonising historical narratives can reshape our views on sexual pleasure. Time to rethink and reclaim!
“When applying emancipation to pleasure, one can free oneself from colonial mentalities, and internalized oppressive forces that prevent one’s healing and erotic intelligence to know and experience joyful embodied wisdom” – Zelaika Hepworth Clarke.
Check out the incredible work of Zelaika Hepworth Clarke, who used their PhD research to explore the connections between African spirituality, gender, and sexuality through a decolonial lens. Their insights into Ọ̀ṣunality are transformative!
I am building community in all the ways I can. Rather that is connecting with researchers at Pola Practice’s POLAB, or reaching out to people who are doing research that either aligns with or challenges my research topics.
I am never shy about reaching out. Recently, I was reading a research article and saw that one of the participants was someone I have previously worked with. I think a key part of building community is just being open to making those connections.
Penelope Smith added: It is clear that the system in which all our PhDs sit does naturally force us apart from one other, giving us strong messages of competition rather than connection…
Connection for me came through attending the compulsory units, extra training opportunities, reading groups, pure luck
But the intentionality of how I continue the connection is important.
Toya Ricci’s PhD title: Intimate Sovereignty: Decolonising Sexual Pleasure Histories
Khwanruethai Ngampromwongse writes:
For those of you who don’t know, PhD stands for POWERFUL HOT DEADLY …. nah gammin! I want to share a bit about how I became a Doctor of Philosophy candidate. 10 years ago I was failing high school and had no idea what I wanted to do and didn’t know if I could get into uni. It was at this point I found out about Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, The University of Queensland’s InspireU science camp for First Nations secondary students.
I attended InspireU camp with other Indigenous high school students. We visited the Moreton Bay Research Station on Minjerribah, North Stradbroke Island on Quandamooka country, UQ St Lucia campus and QIMR Berghofer medical research institute.
Before the camp, I didn’t have high aspirations for myself. After InspireU, I was HOOKED on the idea of pursuing tertiary education.
Now, here I am, Bachelor of Health Sciences from @UQ_News, Professional Certificate in Indigenous Research @UniMelb and enrolled in Master of Philosophy and articulated to PhD at UQ.
Articulating means at the six-month MPhil Confirmation of Candidature milestone, if you pass, you can apply to upgrade your candidature to PhD. It is one of many enrolment paths I found through the @UQPoche Pathways Program to PhD: Doing Research for Mob.
For me, pursuing a PhD is about more than academic goals. It’s about overcoming educational disenfranchisement and envisioning strong health and wellbeing outcomes for mob through my research.
My Indigenous PhD peers in our writing group share this sentiment: our research isn’t just about earning a title, it’s about real change for our communities.
As a Blakfulla researcher, knowledge translation is my top priority—more urgent than other academic duties! I serve the community. It’s all about turning research into real-world benefits and meaningful change. Because hey, what’s research without action?
Integrating Indigenous ways of knowing, doing and being into research drives transformative change for Indigenous communities and challenges colonial paradigms.
Check out this article on Indigenist Research Methodology by Professor Rigney.
About my PhD topic: ‘Strengthening LGBTQISB+ First Nations peoples’ access to culturally safe, sexuality, and gender affirming cervical screening’
Cervical screening is crucial for early detection, but for First Nations people with a cervix, the harms can often outweigh the benefits. The process can cause distress, trauma, discomfort, lack of privacy and control, and culturally unsafe healthcare experiences.
Intersectionality, a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, describes how different aspects of a person’s identity (like race, gender, and sexual orientation) can expose them to overlapping forms of discrimination and marginalisation.
This paper explores the experiences of one intersectional population – Indigenous women and cervical screening barriers, check it out here.
My PhD is focused on another intersectional population – Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, sistergirl, and brotherboy (LGBTQISB+) First Nations people with a cervix.
In addition to persisting settler-colonial violence and systemic inequalities that First Nations peoples experience, LGBTQISB+ Blakfullas face additional challenges in accessing cervical screening.
A study led by @EdithCowanUni researchers explores the complex experiences of being Indigenous and part of the LGBT+ community.
Health system gaps
As a neurodivergent Thai Aboriginal AFAB lesbian with chronic health conditions, navigating the Australian public health system exposed me to significant gaps in service delivery and cultural safety.
Feeling an overwhelming sense of injustice from my experiences, I was inspired to pursue PhD research to ensure all mob have access to culturally appropriate and inclusive care, especially when it comes to cervical screening!
It’s tough to separate the two, but that’s what makes it powerful! As staunch Aunt Kelli Owen always says, this is my HEARTWORK. Check out Aunt’s work in Aboriginal kidney health here.
Lived experience narratives and Participatory Action Research bring invaluable insights to health policy. It’s about time we recognise their importance in crafting policies that truly serve our communities.
Check out this work led by @pat_dudgeon on Aboriginal Participatory Action Research (APAR) here.
Often, I see ‘vulnerable’ populations siloed/othered in policy discussions, leading to fragmented and ineffective solutions. We need holistic, intersectional approaches grounded in decolonisation + anti-capitalist lens to truly progress efforts to achieve health equity.
Stats show significant disparities in life expectancy + chronic diseases for mob, but frame Indigeneity as a risk factor in the same breath. This racial lens overlooks the ongoing effects of colonisation + systemic racism + its role in making + perpetuating disparities
Check out this article by Chelsea Watego and David Singh – “Indigenous peoples are the architects of health advancement rather than accessories to failed health policy frameworks” – love this line.
The first year of my PhD: lots of reading, discussions, grant and ethics applications, and passing the confirmation milestone. Now, I’m thrilled to move closer to the ‘doing the research’ phase. Can’t wait to yarn with participants about their lived experiences!
Outside of my PhD, I volunteer with BlackfullaAlt2Su, an anti-carceral Indigenous-led peer support group for mob experiencing suicidality. We’ve culturally adapted the @WldflwrAlliance Alternatives to Suicide Group Charter for our yarns. Check us out here.
Much like my PhD peers, I have a lot of side quests happening alongside my research. Many of them I find fulfilment in, like BlackfullaAlt2Su… I get to give back to the community by showing up.
But there are other opportunities that sound too good to pass up and as a neurodiverse disabled they/them, I am coming to terms with the fact I am not immune to burnout!
On decolonisation
So what is the difference between your approach to decolonisation before undertaking your PhD and now? Has there been a change in how you actively pursue decolonisation? Before, decolonisation was about reclaiming my cultural roots + challenging everyday colonial narratives.
The shift is towards systemic transformation. Making decolonisation a central, ongoing effort in my work.
Now, it’s deeply embedded in my academic journey. I actively engage in decolonisation via research methodologies, questioning academic structures, and ensuring Indigenous voices are at the forefront.
I enjoy this discourse on settlers of colour… Settlers of colour in academic institutions often face the #ModelMinorityMyth, masking systemic inequalities and perpetuating colonial thinking.
The #ModelMinorityMyth paints settlers of colour as successful, masking the challenges faced by other marginalised groups, particularly Indigenous peoples…
In my brief time in the academy, I’ve witnessed settlers of colour perpetuate deficit-based narratives about Indigenous peoples, reinforcing colonialist ideologies.
A significant issue in academia is the siloed view of racism among settlers of colour, overlooking the interconnectedness of oppression and reinforcing colonial structures #PhDViolence
There’s potential for solidarity and meaningful allyship in academia. Some settlers of colour are pushing beyond the colonial logic, recognising the sovereignty of First Nations peoples.
Outside of applying decolonisation as a methodology or theory for our PhD projects, we want to explore different parts of the PhD experience including #Supervision, key milestones such as Confirmation of candidature and participants of our research.
Often there is significant burden within the academy placed on marginalised scholars. The PhD creates a power imbalance which can intensify this burden. For example – First Nations students with full non-Indigenous supervision teams…
In comparison to scholars of privilege, the choices marginalised scholars make regarding theory and methods (such as decolonisation) can be inappropriately challenged. Noting the power dynamic in PhDs, this can make a milestone moment #CoC [Confirmation of Candidature] very dangerous.
Finally, the significant expectation on marginalised scholars – First Nations, queer, refugee, asslyum seeker – that your research will focus on your identity AND should you chose to do this, the inability post PhD to move outside.
The manner in which colonial rigidity can impact on simply considering and applying for a PhD let alone whether or not you as a marginalised scholar will be given access and entry… so what does the academic world/broader knowledge miss out on because of this rigidity?
Khwanruethai Ngampromwongse’s PhD title: Strengthening LGBTQISB+ First Nations peoples’ access to culturally safe, sexuality and gender affirming cervical screening.
Erin Fitzpatrick writes:
Also, looking forward to @xvmls popping in this afternoon to kick start a conversation on #QueerTheory with the gang!
I’m still a PhD candidate at @victoriauninews, a research assistant for Pathways In Place @Mitch_Inst, and bunch of other things besides. I have three cats, a #DnD crew (most aren’t cats), and an undying love of dance which keeps me active and away from the computer screen.
Of course, I can’t say I have cats without sharing them with the world so here is the obligatory #CatTax. World, meet Lily, Oscar, and Shadow. They are passable research assistants.
Last time I had the chance to tweet with the #PhDVoices team I was a newly confirmed PhD candidate. It was an exciting time of change, progress, learning, reading, and speaking. Now, one year on, it’s very definitely still a time of change and learning.
I’m now a mildly seasoned #PhD candidate who has had to navigate new and old systems within the academy, as well as many systems externally.
One of the biggest things I’ve accomplished this year is the successful submission of my ethics proposal, making minor amendments, and had then having the proposal approved.
This submission was a labour of love and informed by several things, including a @CIDRNVU talk I attended last year.
I then promptly (for a given value of prompt) turned around and made changes to my study design and had to rinse and repeat the ethics process. Woooo…
This was a decision made with extensive discussion between myself and my super supervisors, @Riley_Therese and @armowle. It’s definitely a change for the better and it should help centre the voices of young people more fully in my work.
This means really putting their priorities at the forefront of my investigation, rather than doing what I (a non-young person) thinks is important.
Speaking of #YoungPeople, in the last year or so the Pathways In Place team @Mitch_Inst hired three with a connection to Brimbank. They are #LivedExperience experts, valued team members, and people from whom I’m learning so much.
Employing those with lived experience (peer researchers), rather than just consulting them, allows for peer researchers to privilege their own agendas within the work, and subverts deeply ingrained academic understandings of knowledge production. When done well, anyway…
Here’s an Australian article which helped guide the way Pathways In Place brought these peer researchers on board. Shoutout to @DrTinaLam_AU, @DrSuziNielsenand the other members of their team for this really great and insightful piece.
It’s a joy working with our peer researchers, seeing them shine, and supporting them in centring young people’s voices in the Pathways In Place project. Their enthusiasm is palpable and contagious, and they encourage me to be a better researcher every day.
Bringing them onboard has had challenges. The team is still navigating how to work flexibly and there are lots of taken-for-granted processes (like assumed email access/use) that aren’t supportive to the crazy busy lives being led by young people.
It’s a work-in-progress, but we’re working together to make sure our collaboration isn’t hindered by what has always been done.
In seriousness, though. The core of my project, the #PeoplePlacesPathways project, still focuses on exploring the way young peoples’ social relationships and access to help and resources are influenced by where they live.
However, in working through the literature and creating my interview questions I realised I, my work, and my participants would benefit from bringing young peoples’ voices into the design process.
For this reason, I am now going to do a pilot study. This is like a little mini version of your project where you get to test out questions, processes, and other practicalities before you start really getting into your data collection.
This is a great paper I used when thinking about whether piloting was right for me.
Although I’m going to be testing out my interview procedures, the main reason I want to do a pilot study is to get young peoples’ insights into the questions I’m asking; to make sure they are relevant and will elicit the information I’m actually after.
Do my questions provide space for young people to discuss their experiences comfortably, safely, and accurately? I sure hope so, but we’ll find out.
The beauty of the pilot process, for me, is that I’ll be able to get feedback on my questions from young people directly. It’s one thing to create an interview schedule based on the literature…
…it’s another thing entirely to check back with those for whom I hope my research will be representative.
Pilot participants can freely comment on my questions and process at any time, suggest questions or rewording, and give insight onto what facets of relationships and social capital are actually relevant to them and their lives.
From there, I’ll be able to collate and review feedback, compare it with the literature, try out some more things and refine my interviews. It’s exciting stuff and will ensure my research doesn’t come only from a place of privileged knowledge.
On research ethics
So, let’s talk a little bit about research ethics: what it is, why we have it, and how it works. Broadly, according to the @WHOPRO, research ethics are the standards set out for how academics and others conduct their research. Okay, but what? What does that mean?
It means that across the world there are a standardised set of guidelines put in place that are supposed to make sure research participants (and #research populations in general) are treated safely, respectfully, and honestly. These are set by the @UN_HRC.
Each country has their own specific ethical codes of research conduct based on these guidelines. For Australia, we look to the @nhmrc for guidance.
In particular, there are two documents of importance: The National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research and The Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research.
From here, each university has their own research ethics committee (HREC). This is the body within a #university who looks over all the human and animal research applications and decides whether they meet the standards set out by the @nhmrc.
Applying to these bodies can be nerve wracking if you’re a student or early career researcher. The forms aren’t always clear, deadlines are tight, and #research can’t begin until you get clearance from the HREC. If you make changes you have to amendment.
Pro tip: If you have amendments under review your project goes on pause, at least as far as #data gathering goes. That’s something I’ve learnt this year.
I also learnt every year there’s a report you’re supposed to fill out which details any issues you’ve had with your study, any publications, any progress, and a bunch of other things. Didn’t know that prior, so now we both do.
One thing these HRECs look for when reviewing #ResearchApplications is the inclusion of “vulnerable people.” This includes a wide range of people including, but not limited to: people aged under 18, people of colour, and people with disabilities.
While keeping a careful eye on these populations is often seen as a way to ensure accurate, safe representation within research, it can often have the opposite approach.
In some instances, researchers may steer away from these population groups altogether to avoid dealing with HREC concerns.
Some HRECs may be hesitant to incur risk to the institutions in which they’re housed (whether they be universities, hospitals, or other research organisations)…
…that could arise from working with “vulnerable” populations, which means a risk-avoidant, non-inclusive research culture is sometimes fostered.
For student and Early Career Researchers it can be especially easy to fall into the trap of creating risk-averse research projects. We’re bombarded with deadlines and there’s an ever-present feeling that we’re running out of time.
It feels like there’s no time to wait a month for the whole HREC to meet, just for them to send you a list of changes.
This submit-amend-resubmit cycle can take months if you need full HREC clearance and in the #academicworld that feels like SO much time.
This risk-averse viewpoint also takes agency away from so-called “vulnerable” groups. There are real questions around who decides which groups are vulnerable and who gets to make decisions about them, their representation, and their roles in research in general.
This was a point well made by @PulengSegalo in a @CIDRNVU talk she gave last year. I also referenced this talk last year. It obviously made an impression. There was really interesting group discussion, to which @LopeyPen can attest.
Especially when we’re talking about disrupting systems that are oppressing instead of helping.
Practically within the ethics system as students, though? That’s hard. You have to back yourself and advocate for your expertise to be listened to, and that can be unsafe.
If you don’t have a good supervisory team around you, or you’re unfamiliar with the university systems and processes it’s really, really hard.
And I’ll be honest, I don’t really have answers. It’s something we all need to be thinking about, though, and having peers with whom you can bounce ideas and strategise makes such a difference.
Trust yourself. Trust your expertise. Trust and encourage the expertise of your participants. Question your training. Question the #systems around you and ESPECIALLY those in which you’re embedded.
Here is a great article that explores the characteristics of “friendly” and “unfriendly” HRECs, specifically in the context of educational research.
And here is a great article talking about system leverage points, or the parts of a system that can be changed. It’s a bit of an oldy, but a goody.
On mental health
Despite studying and practising in psychology, talking about my own mental health has often been complex. Sharing this afternoon feels risky but being part of #PhDVoices has shown me that being vulnerable is powerful.
Doing a PhD has been a wild experience. It has forced me to learn to advocate for myself, draw boundaries around realistic work schedules, and also learn how to prioritise sleep and self care tasks.
This has really reinforced how important my research is to me. The people in my life have been amazing (shoutout to @LopeyPen) and while I haven’t been “doing the work”, I think I’ve been living my work by focusing on myself and the people who matter.
Erin’s PhD title: People, Places, Pathways: Exploring the relationship between place, social network, and social capital for emerging adults.
Xavier Mills writes:
My name is Xavier Mills @xvmls. I have spent half my week from Yunbenun (Magnetic Island) and from Naarm (Melbourne). I would like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, the lands from where I am tweeting today, and where I live and work.
We are going to start on a personal note, how did we each become aware of queer theory and how have we applied it within our scholarly practice?
I learnt about queer theory in my undergrad Sociology degree @Swinburne
These categories of sex, gender and sexuality, are not naturally occurring. Queer theory is dedicated to dismantling these categories, to create a more equitable and less restricting world for everyone involved.
Argentinian Professor Maria Lugones argues that “gender itself is a colonial introduction, a violent introduction consistently and contemporarily used to destroy peoples, cosmologies, and communities as the building ground of the “civilised” West”.
Colonial powers created systems that intertwined heterosexuality, binary gender, capitalism, and racial classifications. These systems have shaped how we think about identity today.
Queer theory isn’t just about LGBTQ+ issues; it’s about deconstructing all forms of normative thinking. It acknowledges that it intersects with race, class, and disability studies to challenge oppression in all its forms.
Queer theory is part of the full research process. Incorporating it into research helps to uncover the biases and assumptions embedded in traditional methodologies. It is not necessarily radical; it just requires intentional application.
@kevin_guyan sheds light on the UK census’ erasure of queer individuals through purposeful survey design methods: “Decisions made about who to count, what to count and how to count are not value- neutral but bring to life a particular vision of the social world”.
If we acknowledge that identity labels do not simply exist, then queer approaches to data ask how these categories (eg. gay, lesbian, trans, queer, straight) emerge in the first place, and how are certain people included and excluded from the social world?
Research ethics can be tricky terrain when it comes to collecting data about queer people. HREC tend to place research projects with the mention of queer, LGBTQ into a high-risk category, under the assumption that queer people are inherently risky populations to do work with.
Using queer theory in research challenges how HREC label queer populations as at risk. Ethical research in queer studies must respect the unique experiences and voices of LGBTQ individuals. It’s about more than just following guidelines – it’s about genuine understanding and respect.
For example, after the 2021 census, a complaint was filed to the Australian Human Rights Commission for failing to ask meaningful questions to properly count members of the LGBTQ community.
@GortonM, a Naarm based health lawyer wrote a report detailing the legislative and social #discriminationqueer families encounter in the legal system: it is “out of step with the evolving understanding of different family formations”.
Queer families often become embroiled in the culture wars. Eg. The Cumberland City Council’s banning of books in libraries about same-sex parents, which aimed to “protect children from being sexualised”.
The same can be said for queer people generally, where there is a “moral panic around drag story time” in Victoria.
Something I have learnt from academia is to be patient. For example, I presented @AustSoc TASA conference in 2022. Just last week (two years later), the paper got accepted for publication.
I use my shameless self-plug as a reminder that social progress and social exchange is slow, but behind the scenes there are a number of inspired activists continuously working to make our world better for everyone
Xavier Mills’ PhD title: Who defines family? An institutional ethnography of ruling relations that govern and structure queer families
• Stay tuned for another #PhDVoices wrap where they share the financial stresses of the PhD journey in Australia; and in case you missed it, check out their favourite PhD jams here.
See other articles by @WePublicHealth guest tweeters.
