Dear Chrissie (and all),
Yes Chrissie, you’ll need to go for university ethics approval through FREGC.
Nigel and I had to do the same before writing
Living in the Borderlands, and I had to ask my wife to sign an informed consent form which felt very strange. It’s a tricky one. There is a small literature dealing with some of the tensions, incl. relational-situational vs procedural ethics in autoethnography,
and whether the methodology actually constitutes empirical research in the sense ethical committees are used to. Carol Rambo, whose work is part of this, actually claimed that what she was doing was oral/social history when it came to the crunch for her (can
send you the relevant refs if you want?).
Right now, I personally think such committees and processes (of which I’m part here at Brighton) constitute blunt and inapt tools for making ethical judgements on AE, but they’re what we have
and we have to go through them. Maybe in the future the ethical processes will develop and be more responsive to AE, but right now this is what we have to do if you’re involving other people in your research, as opposed to, eg, using fiction as a literary
device.
Difficult one, I know. Good luck!
Best,
Alec
From: Narrative Inquiry where social science meets art [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: 03 November 2011 11:41
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: I have a queer feeling!
Hi All
Hope you are all well.
I just thought I’d ask if anybody could throw some light on an ethical question.
I am currently trying to work (emphasis on trying) on an autoethnographic piece of work that involves three family members, myself included. The piece itself will be grounded in Queer Theory/Sexual
identity.
It is essentially a dialogue between the three of us to be presented in a way not to far from how the narrative is presented in Short et al., ‘Living in the Borderlands’ or in Ellis’s Heartful
Autoethnography, but I am not sure yet.
I have carried out preliminary interviews but will be going back again in a couple of weeks to record more detailed data in response to specific questions. I have the full consent of the individuals
concerned to do this.
However, it does occur to me that I am employed in the university of Brighton as researcher and that obviously my current research had to go through ethics approval. Do I need to do the same
for my autoethnographic work, although this is not commissioned research by the University and being privately conducted, however it is my intention that the work be viewed by an autoethnographic study group (includes University employees and others) which
does technically mean publication in the legal sense.
Should I stop what I am doing and seek advice or am I seeing more in this than I should?
Thanks for reading this.
Kindest regards
Chrissy
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