Coming out in the field: A queer reflexive account of shifting researcher identity

Abstract

This article contributes to the literature on reflexivity by articulating a queer reflexivity lens, which entails engaging in a reflexive questioning of the categories we use to identify people and recognizing the shifting nature of researcher and participant identities over the course of the research process. Queer reflexivity enables us to think differently about an important debate in qualitative methods concerning who can study whom. For instance, are white researchers in a position to study people of color? Are men able to study women and women’s issues? Can “straight”-identified researchers study the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer community? I argue that the question of whether or not to “match” for categories of difference in research studies is complicated by the fluid, shifting nature of identities that queer theory highlights. In order to demonstrate how qualitative organizational researchers can learn about the craft of research through the concept of queer reflexivity, I recount an auto-ethnographic “coming-out” tale in which I discuss the implications of my shifting sexual identity over the course of a research project.

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