FIRN

Through the third cycle of Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN) and this edition, the FIRN team has attempted to offer a different perspective on who gets recognition as a knowledge producer and how research can be a political act that disrupts knowledge formation, serving as an entry point for networking, connecting and movement building. 

Gulbakhor reflected on the challenges in navigating a research on TFGBV in Tajikistan, where domestic violence and marital rape are not criminalised, reinforced by a culture of silence and spaces for women to be heard is almost non-existence.

The research team from the University of Cape Town (UCT) discuss their use of decolonial feminism in their contribution to feminist politics of knowledge building and centering of participants’ voices in the research and knowledge co-creation with the participants in their research project.

In researching the multiple ways violence against LGBTQIA+ take place in Ethiopia, Martha and S.A. reflected how the broader social, cultural and political environment influence the process and how they work together collaboratively based on shared values and ethics despite the differences in terms of perspective, approaches and emotional response.

Researching on the experiences of Black Brazillian women with TFGBV, the authors share their reflection on research methodology, their relationship with participants, the (imperfect) measures they implemented to navigate power dynamics embedded within the research process and recognition of research participants as the key contributors to this work.

In this article, the authors reflect on the moments when we felt that their roles blurred during the study on the experience of TFGBV for transgender, non-binary and gender diverse persons in India —when “objectivity” met empathy, when boundaries felt porous and when their identities were a part of the stories that were told.

In the face of consistent violence and genocide, Ghiwa and Sabiha from Kohl opens the conversation on doing research while grieving for the destruction of lives being wiped out generation after generation by settler colonialists.

In this critical reflection of her experience in conducting feminist research on the implication of TFGBV on women and LGBTQ+ people in Egypt, Aya explores research as a site for community building and organising.

This article explores the various decisions that the research teams had to make throughout the process and how being reflexive also means being ready to revise research design, and subsequently open the doors for other ways of doing and knowing.

The reflection from our Karina and Analia from Uruguay, shared how the shift from being an object of study to telling stories of their own sex workers community and leading the process of knowledge production. The project challenged the conception of “who” are legitimate knowledge makers, producing key knowledge grounded on socially constructed negotiation of power in real life.