Who do you serve? Thinking about the ethics of research practice in rural cultural research

Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Development Node

Co-ordinators: Emily Potter and Clifton Evers

Friday 17 October 2008
University of Melbourne

This one-day workshop, supported by the Cultural Histories and Geographies Node, will bring together postgraduate, ECR and established researchers to think through and critically discuss the question of ethics in rural cultural research practice. Building on the ‘Doing Rural Cultural Studies’ workshop organised by the PG/ECR node in March this year, this event turns its attention to a specific and highly charged aspect of the process and outcome of rural cultural research: the question of ‘who do you serve?’. This time, two senior researchers in the field – Ross Gibson and Kate Bowles – have been invited to join the original participants of the March workshop to share their experience and provide commentary on the day’s proceedings. Discussion will focus on a range of questions circulated to participants beforehand. One or two postgraduates in the Melbourne area who did not attend the initial workshop will also be invited to ‘sit in’ at the event.

Three key outcomes will result from this event. The first is the consolidation of the cohort of rural researchers that met in March, thus building on the momentum and collegiality created by that event. The second is a set of recordings of the day’s proceedings that will be made available online as a resource for researchers working in the field. The third is the preparation of material for a seminar about issues of ethics and rural research that can be taken to the very rural communities that are being investigated in the participants’ research; the presentation of this seminar at a rural site is a further event that will be proposed for 2009.

report

‘Who do you serve?’ was another extremely successful workshop coordinated by the PG/ECR Development Node, in conjunction with the Cultural Histories and Geographies Node. The event built on the ‘Doing Rural Cultural Studies’ workshop that was held in March 2008 by reconvening members of the original group; this time, some new faces joined these participants, and Prof. Ross Gibson was invited to act as a mentor and share his experience with these postgraduates and ECRs.

The day’s theme was inspired by Lisa Slater, who wanted to challenge the group to ask how their work in rural communities connected to and dealt with ethical concerns. How, for example, does one establish appropriate ways of dealing with the competing interests of the different stakeholders in a rural context? Are there particular ethical issues that appear in rural research? And what might ethical research practice in rural cultural studies look like? Discussion was lively throughout the day, as the participants challenged each other – often by recounting personal research experience – and grappled with the ways in which their research ‘serves’ the self, the community, the university.

A third event for this group is planned for 2009, and an idea about producing a seminar or presentation to take ‘on the road’ to rural communities to ask direct questions about ethics is also taking shape.