Living Ethics and Methods as Questions

Abstract

Abstract This chapter discusses the ethical, methodological, and narrative dilemmas of researching the politics of victimhood. The discussion is deliberately organized around questions, as this is how research dilemmas are lived. These questions correspond to different phases of the research process, highlighting that ethical and methodological dilemmas pertain not only to the research design and fieldwork, but also to the processes of analysis and writing. Among the dilemmas are questions about where to direct the research gaze, where theory comes from, how to ground the inquiry in time and place, how to investigate victimhood without placing the narrative burden exclusively on people who suffered harm, and how to navigate the complicated expectations of loyalty among different interlocutors. The chapter illuminates that discussions of feminist research methods and ethics are inseparable from each other, from the findings of the research, and from the politics of victimhood.