Working With Marginalised Communities: Towards an Ethical Practice for PhD Scholars (Day 3)

A growing number of PhD students and Early Career Researchers have shown interest in pursuing research with and for communities who have traditionally been viewed from an abstract distance if, indeed, they have been viewed at all. The scope of these projects is wide and includes researchers working with women in domestic violence refuges, teenagers in socio-economically deprived areas of London and Afghani refugee communities caught in the limbo of the Aegean islands.

What these projects all have in common is that they bring academic scholars into contact with individuals and communities that are likely to have experienced trauma as well as disempowering if not explicitly violent interactions with institutional and state authorities. High levels of professional and personal sensitivity and ethics are essential if the researcher is to avoid replicating the participants’ experiences of marginalisation and creating an abstract rather than rich, nuanced picture of their lives and experiences.

This is a three-part webinar series delivered by Fred Ehresmann, Senior Lecturer in Mental Health at the University of the West of England and Dr Jade Lee, director of Aurora Learning.

By the end of the webinars, participants will:

o Have an introductory understanding of the psychological and physiological impact of chronic trauma on the individual.
o Have an understanding of ‘Trauma Informed Care’ and why it is an integral part of working respectfully and ethically with traumatized populations.
o Have considered the importance of informed consent and what this looks like practically in unstable environments.
o Have practical strategies for conducting research interviews in a sensitive, ethical, and trauma-informed manner.
o Have explored their own position as researchers and individuals within a broader social context and the expectations and preconceptions they bring to the interaction.
o Considered the importance of safeguarding their own mental wellbeing in the research context and practical ways of doing so.