The ‘reflexive turn’ transcended disciplinary boundaries within the social sciences. Feminist scholars in particular have taken up its core concerns, establishing a wide-ranging literature on reflexivity in feminist theory and practice. In this paper, I contribute to this scholarship by deconstructing the ‘story’ of my own research as a white, genderqueer, masculine-presenting researcher in Ghana. This deconstruction is based on thirteen months of field research exploring LGBT activism in the capital city of Accra. Using a series of ethnographic vignettes, I examine questions of queer subjectivity, embodiment and self/Other dynamics in the research encounter. Specifically, I interrogate what a reflexive concern for power relations means when researchers share moments of commonality and difference with research participants, here in relation to axes of gender, sexuality, race and class. Finally, I explore the challenge of theorising resistance in light of feminist postcolonial critiques of the politics of representation. I conclude that it is only by locating these tensions and dissonances in the foreground of our inquiries that reflexivity becomes meaningful as a way of rendering knowledge production more accountable and transparent, of practising feminist solidarity, and of excavating our own queer research journeys.
AdamsT.E., and JonesS.H., 2011. Telling stories: reflexivity, queer theory, and autoethnography. Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies, 11(2), pp. 108–116.
2.
AnarfiJ., and FayorseyC.K., 2000. Male protagonists in the ‘commercialization’ of aspects of the female life-cycle in Ghana. In BledsoeC., LernerS., and GuyerJ.I., eds. Fertility and the Male Life-Cycle in the Era of Fertility Decline. Oxford: University of Oxford Press, pp. 144–160.
3.
Ardayfio-SchandorfE., 2006. The family in Ghana: past and present perspectives. In Oheneba-SakyiY., and BaffourK.T., eds. African Families at the Turn of the 21st Century. Westport: Praeger Publishers, pp. 129–152.
4.
ArtzL., MeerT., GalgutH., and MüllerA., 2017. Participation in practice: a case study of a collaborative project on sexual offences in South Africa. Feminist Review, 115, pp. 79–96.
5.
AwoonorK., 1987 [1964]. Until the Morning After: Collected Poems 1963–1985. London: Greenfield Review.
6.
BainA.L., and NashC.J., 2006. Undressing the researcher: feminism, embodiment and sexuality at a queer bathhouse event. Area, 38(1), pp. 99–106.
7.
BanksW.D., 2012. Remembering Okomfo Kwabena: ‘motherhood’, spirituality, and queer leadership in Ghana. African Historical Review, 44(2), pp. 1–17.
8.
BBC, 2011. Cameron threat to dock some UK aid to anti-gay nations. BBC News, 30 October. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15511081 [last accessed 15 April 2018].
9.
BeharR., 1996. The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology that Breaks Your Heart. Boston: Beacon Press.
10.
BeharR., 2013. Travelling Heavy: A Memoir in Between Journeys. Durham: Duke University Press.
11.
BoellstorffT., 2012. The politics of similitude: global sexuality activism, ethnography, and the Western subject. Trans-Scripts, 2, pp. 22–39.
12.
BorlandK., 2007. Decolonizing approaches to feminist research: the case of feminist ethnography. In Hesse-BiberS.N., ed. Handbook of Feminist Research: Theory and Praxis. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, pp. 621–627.
13.
BourdieuP., 1992. An Invitation to a Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
14.
BowsH., 2017. Researching sexual violence against older people: reflecting on the use of Freedom of Information requests in a feminist study. Feminist Review, 115, pp. 30–45.
BriggsJ., and SharpJ., 2004. Indigenous knowledges and development: a postcolonial caution. Third World Quarterly, 25(4), pp. 661–676.
17.
BrowneK., 2003. Negotiations and fieldworkings: friendship and feminist research. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 2(2), pp. 133–146.
18.
ButlerJ., 1999. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge Press.
19.
CarterC., 2016. A way to meet queer women? Reflections on sexuality and desire in research. Sexualities, 19(1–2), pp. 119–137.
20.
CoffeyA., 1999. The Ethnographic Self: Fieldwork and Representation of Identity. London: Sage Publications.
DankwaS.O., 2009. “It's a silent trade”: female same-sex intimacies in post-colonial Ghana. Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 17(3), pp. 192–205.
24.
DeleuzeG., and GuattariF., 1983 [1972]. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Tr. B. Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
25.
DeleuzeG., and GuattariF., 1987 [1980]. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Tr. B. Massumi. London: University of Minnesota Press.
26.
DenzinN.K., and LincolnY.S., 2008. The Landscape of Qualitative Research. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
27.
DiFelicitanioC., GadelhaK.B., and DasGuptaD., 2017. Queer(y)ing methodologies: doing fieldwork and becoming queer—guest editorial. Gender, Place and Culture, 24(3), pp. 403–412.
28.
EllisC., 2004. The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel About Autoethnography. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.
29.
EssienK., and AderintoS., 2009. “Cutting the head of the roaring monster”: homosexuality and repression in Africa. African Study Monographs, 30(3), pp. 121–135.
30.
EtheringtonK., 2004. Becoming a Reflexive Researcher: Using Ourselves in Research. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
31.
FariaC., and MollettS., 2016. Critical feminist reflexivity and the politics of whiteness in the ‘field’. Gender, Place & Culture, 23 (1), pp. 79–93.
32.
FoucaultM., 1978. A History of Sexuality: An Introduction. New York: Pantheon Books.
33.
GeertzC., 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
34.
GiamettaC., 2017. Reorienting participation, distance and positionality: ethnographic encounters with gender and sexual minority migrants. Sexualities, 30 March. Available at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1363460716678751 [last accessed 3 July 2018].
35.
GunaratnamY., and HamiltonC., 2017. The wherewithal of feminist methods. Feminist Review, 115, pp. 1–12.
HarawayD.J., 1991. Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge.
38.
HardingS.G., 1987. Feminism and Methodology Social Science Issues. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
39.
HemmingsC., 2012. Affective solidarity: feminist reflexivity and political transformation. Feminist Theory, 13(2), pp. 147–161.
40.
JeffersJ.B., DohlieM-B., and LithurN.O., 2010. Assessment: Legal and Regulatory Framework Affecting Treatment of and Services for Most-at-Risk Populations in Ghana. Washington, DC: Futures Group, Health Policy Initiative, Task Order1.
41.
KhannaA., 2009. Taming of the shrewd Meyeli Chhele: a political economy of development's sexual subject. Development, 52(1), pp. 43–51.
42.
LalJ., 1996. Situating locations: the politics of self, identity, and “other” in living and writing text. In WolfD.L., ed. Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork. Boulder: Westview Press, pp. 185–214.
43.
LetherbyG., 2003. Feminist Research in Theory and Practice. Buckingham: Open University Press.
44.
LewinE., and LeapW.L., eds., 1996. Out in the Field: Reflections of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
45.
LordeA., 2007 [1984]. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde. Berkeley: Crossing Press.
46.
MahmoodS., 2005. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and The Feminist Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
47.
MakofaneK., GueboguoC., LyonsD., and SandfortT., 2013. Men who have sex with men inadequately addressed in African AIDS National Strategic Plans. Global Public Health: An International Journal for Research, Policy and Practice, 8(2), pp. 129–143.
48.
MamaA., 1995. Beyond the Masks: Race, Gender, and Subjectivity. New York: Routledge.
49.
MarcusG.E., 2001. From rapport under erasure to theaters of complicit reflexivity. Qualitative Inquiry, 7(4), pp. 519–528.
50.
MohantyC., 2003. Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Durham: Duke University Press.
PeakeL., and TrotzD.A., 1999. Gender, Ethnicity and Place Women and Identities in Guyana. London: Routledge.
59.
PesterH., 2017. Archive fanfiction: experimental archive research methodologies and feminist epistemological tactics. Feminist Review, 115, pp. 114–129.
60.
Pew Research Center, 2013. The Global Divide on Homosexuality: Greater Acceptance in More Secular and Affluent Countries. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
61.
Pew Research Center, 2014. Global Views on Morality. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
62.
PierreJ., 2012. The Predicament of Blackness: Postcolonial Ghana and the Politics of Race. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
63.
PlummerK., 1995. Telling Sexual Stories: Power, Change, and Social Worlds. London: Routledge.
64.
RookeA., 2009. Queer in the field: on emotions, temporality, and performativity in ethnography. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 13(2), pp. 149–160.
65.
Ryan-FloodR., 2009. Queering representation: ethics and visibility in research. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 13(2), pp. 216–228.
66.
SimplicianS.C., 2017. Feminist disability studies as methodology: life-writing and the abled/disabled binary. Feminist Review, 115, pp. 46–60.
67.
SpivakG.C., 1988. Can the subaltern speak? In NelsonC., and GrossbergL., eds. Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. London: Macmillan, pp. 66–111.
68.
SteierF., 1991. Research and Reflexivity. London: Sage.
69.
TrinhT.M-H., 1989. Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
70.
ValentineG., 2002. People like us: negotiating sameness and difference in the research process. In MossP., ed. Feminist Geography in Practice. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 116–126.
71.
VaradharajanA., 1995. Exotic Parodies: Subjectivity in Adorno, Said, and Spivak. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis.
