Reckoning with the body in research

Title: Reckoning with the body in research: A reflexive account of negotiating and integrating insider-researcher-practitioner identities in a critical qualitative health study
Abstract: I will present a reflexive account of conducting a critical qualitative health study on bereavement accommodation for workers in precarious employment as an insider, researcher, and practitioner. After experiencing significant health issues following data collection, I could no longer neglect my embodied knowledge in the context of the early pandemic. I grappled with the way my identities engaged with the knowledge being generated, and how I was replicating dominant ideologies and norms about productivity, labour, and autonomy that I was challenging in my doctoral research. I developed a methodological approach to enhance the integrity of my study that applies feminist ethics beyond the data to account for the researcher and research process. I will outline this approach and discuss the implications of placing care at the center of the research process. Researchers managing insider status and/or experiencing embodied reactions may benefit from this approach as it can enhance reflexivity, coherence, and strategies to work in a sustainable way.
Bio: Dr. Karima Joy (she/her) is a registered social worker, therapist, and graduate of the Social and Behavioural Health Sciences doctoral program at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. She has been working in mental health since 2006, specializing in grief and bereavement since 2008. In 2020, she developed the Grief Education Program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Continuing and Professional Learning. In 2022, she was nominated to become a member of the International Working Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement, where she continues to work with scholars and practitioners around the world. She was the recipient of the 2023-2024 Joan Eakin Award for Methodological Excellence in a Qualitative Doctoral Dissertation.