Dear colleagues,

With apologies for cross-psoting, I encourage all of you who work with Indigenous peoples or in similar contexts where reciprocity plays a key role in research, to contribute a paper to this session.  This is an important leading edge of research protocols with large potential impacts on how we do our work in such situations.

Our deadline is coming up on Wednesday.

Thank you,

Doug

Geographies of Hope Symposium VII: Giving Back: Defining Reciprocity in Research

(PAPER SESSION, OPEN)

Organizer: Douglas Herman

Historically, research has involved a one-way relationship in which data is taken by academic

researchers with little consideration about “giving back” to the communities with whom we

work. “Research” has thus come to be seen as a ‘dirty word’ in many Indigenous and “other”

communities. In recent years, university ethics policies have been revised in attempts to

address that most research has not reflected pluri-ethnic worldviews and has not been

premised on reciprocity. To this end, principles of respectful relationships, consultation and

collaboration have been incorporated into research protocols. In addition to these institutional

guidelines, individual researchers must define for themselves what the quality and nature of

their relationships will be with the communities with whom they work. They must ask

themselves, what does reciprocity look and feel like in my working relationships with

communities with whom we conduct research?

This session invites papers that investigate what it means to ‘give back’ in your work. What

institutional barriers must be navigated in efforts to develop reciprocal relationships with

community partners? How do you know when the outcomes of a research project have upheld

your ethical obligations or goals of reciprocity? How do you navigate the unequal power

relations inherent in academic research with Indigenous and “other” communities, in defining

appropriate ways of ‘giving back’? How can research be mutually beneficial, given the

historical and ongoing relationships of power in centres of knowledge production? How are

the multiple perspectives within an individual community navigated in efforts to ensure

positive outcomes for research partners?

For researchers who are members of the communities with whom they work, ‘giving back’

may present unique challenges and opportunities. Can research itself be a form of ‘giving

back’? To whom are we ‘giving’? How can culturally-based concepts of gifting, witnessing or

diverse ceremonial aspects of knowledge production be incorporated into relationships of

reciprocity among academics and research communities?

If you are interested in presenting a paper for this session, please send an abstract of no longer

than 250 words and PIN # to Doug Herman ([log in to unmask]) by October 24th.

Douglas Herman

Senior Geographer,

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

P.O. Box 37012

Washington, DC 20013

202-633-8843 tel.