Research at the Edge: Reflexivity, Risk, and Working with Women
In this episode of Saltwater Reasonings, I am in conversation with Deborah McFee about the ethical, emotional, and political stakes of conducting research within marginalised Caribbean communities, especially in contexts shaped by violence against women. Our discussion sits with the discomfort, responsibility, and moral courage required of researchers who work at the edge of trauma, advocacy, and community life.
Deborah reflects on how she came into this work, the formative experiences that shaped her commitments, and what it means to be accountable to participants beyond the boundaries of the study. We explore the tensions of positionality (insider and outsider), proximity and distance, voice and silence, and how these tensions shift the lens through which research is conceived, conducted, and narrated.
The conversation deepens around the emotional labour of encountering women’s stories of harm, the experience of being both researcher and witness, and the secondary trauma that often accompanies this work. We speak about dignity, solidarity, and safety as guiding principles, and the necessity of reflexivity when navigating racialised, classed, and gendered power in the Caribbean.
We close by imagining the futures that research with women might make possible: forms of accountability beyond the study; the dangers, sacredness, and unresolved questions that remain; and what it means to carry the work’s hauntings with care rather than extraction. Deborah offers a reflective invitation for researchers to move more slowly, more ethically, and more courageously in their engagements with women’s lives.
What This Episode Offers
A grounding in the ethics of researching violence against women in Caribbean contexts
Insights on reflexivity, risk, and accountability beyond data collection
A discussion of insider/outsider tensions and the politics of positionality
Reflections on emotional labour, witnessing, and secondary trauma
Guidance on centring dignity, solidarity, and safety in research and writing
Forward-looking questions on the futures of feminist, community-driven research
📚 Further Reading / Resources
Ackelsberg, M. A. (1992). Feminist analysis of public policy. Comparative Politics, 24(4), 477-493.
Engle Merry, S. (2016). The seductions of quantification: Measuring human rights, gender violence, and sex trafficking. University of Chicago Press.
Girvan, N. (1999). Notes on the meaning and significance of development. In P. Mohammed & C. Shepherd (Eds.), Gender in Caribbean development (pp. 13-22). Canoe Press.
McFee, D. N., & Rogers, T. A. (Eds.). (2025). Public policy making, gender, and human security in the Caribbean. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-81592-8
McFee, D. (2017). Narratives, the state and national gender policies in the Anglophone Caribbean: Dominica and Trinidad and Tobago. In G. J. Hosein & J. Parpart (Eds.), Negotiating gender, policy and politics in the Caribbean: Feminist strategies, masculinist resistance and transformational possibilities (pp. 109-130). Rowman & Littlefield.
Mohammed, P. (1994). Gender as a primary signifier in the construction of community and state among Indians in Trinidad. Caribbean Quarterly, 40(3/4), 32-43.
Murphy, C. N. (2015). Dignity, human security and global governance. Journal of Human Security, 4(1), 1-12.
Parpart, J. L. (2010). Choosing silence: Rethinking voice, agency and women's empowerment. In R. Ryan-Flood & R. Gill (Eds.), Secrecy and silence in the research process: Feminist reflections (pp. 15-29). Routledge.
Rowley, M., & Antrobus, P. (2007). Feminist visions for women in the new era: An interview with Peggy Antrobus. Feminist Studies, 33(1), 64-87.
Tinker, I. (1990). The making of a field: Advocates, practitioners and scholars. In I. Tinker (Ed.), Persistent inequalities: Women and world development (pp. 27-53). Oxford University Press.
Williams, D., McFee, D. N., & Mutota, F. (2017). Report on a pilot study on the role of women in communities: A case of East Port of Spain. WINAD.
