Building from conversations in a 2011 special issue in this journal, “Contestation and Opportunity in Reflexivity,” in which the omnipresent status yet contested terrain of reflexivity in research is highlighted, this essay takes up ontological and theoretical investments surrounding reflexivity as a way to map and make sense of what reflexivity does to research. After an overview of how reflection and reflexivity are currently put to use, Pillow turns to Kathy Ferguson’s essay, “Interpretation and Genealogy in Feminism,” as a model for tracing interpretation and genealogy in research reflexivity. Differentiating reflexivity as interpretation and reflexivity as genealogical identifies unmarked intentionalities in research as well as the irreducible necessity of both approaches in research reflexivity. The essay concludes with a discussion of how attending to the investments of reflexivity begins to address issues of epistemic privilege that continue to limit research.
AckerlyB.TrueJ. (2008). Reflexivity in practice: Power and ethics in feminist research on international relations. International Studies Review, 10, 693-707.
2.
AdamsT. E.Holman JonesS. (2011). Telling stories: Reflexivity, queer theory, and autoethnography. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 108-116.
3.
AdkinsL. (2003). Reflexivity: Freedom or habit of gender?Theory, Culture & Society, 20(6), 21-42.
4.
AlexanderK. B. (2004). Bu(o)ying condoms: A prophylactic performance of sexuality (or Performance as Cultural Prophylactic Agency). Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 4, 501-525.
5.
AlexanderK. B. (2011a). Standing in the wake: A critical auto/ethnographic exercise on reflexivity in three movements. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 98-107.
6.
AlexanderK. B. (2011b). In BerryK.ClairR. P. (Eds.), Reflecting on the call to ethnographic reflexivity: A collage of responses to questions of contestation. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 199-209.
7.
AnzaldúaG. (1987). Borderlands/La Frontera: The new Mestiza. San Francisco, CA: Spinsters/Aunt Lute.
8.
BeharR.GordonD. (Eds.). (1995). Women writing culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.
9.
BerryK. (2011). The ethnographic choice: Why ethnographers do ethnography. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 165-177.
10.
BerryK.ClairR. P. (2011). Contestation and opportunity in reflexivity: An introduction. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 95-97.
BoylornR. M. (2011a). Gray or for colored girls who are tired of chasing rainbows: Race and reflexivity. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 178-186.
13.
BoylornR. M. (2011b). In BerryK.ClairR. P. (Eds.), Reflecting on the call to ethnographic reflexivity: A collage of responses to questions of contestation. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 199-209.
14.
CampbellK. (2004). The promise of feminist reflexivities: Developing Donna Haraway’s project for feminist science studies. Hypatia, 19(1), 162-182.
15.
CarbaughD.NuciforoE. V.Molina-MarkhamE.van OverB. (2011). Discursive reflexivity in the ethnography of communication: Cultural discourse analysis. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 153-164.
16.
CarringtonB. (2008). “What’s the footballer doing here?” Racialized performativity, reflexivity, and identity. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 8, 423-452.
17.
Chiseri-StraterE. (1996). Turning in upon ourselves: Positionality, subjectivity, and reflexivity in case study and ethnographic research. In MortensenP.KirschG. E. (Eds.), Ethics and representation in qualitative studies of literacy (pp. 115-133). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
18.
ClairR. P. (2011). Reflexivity and rhetorical ethnography: From family farm to orphanage and back again. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 117-128.
19.
ClairR. P. (2012). Engaged ethnography and the story(ies) of the anti-sweatshop movement. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 12, 132-145.
20.
CloughP. (2001). On the relationship of the criticism of ethnographic writing and the cultural studies of science. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 1, 240-270.
21.
CruzC. (2011). LGBTQ street youth talk back: A meditation on resistance and witnessing. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 24, 547-558.
22.
CruzC.PillowW. S. (Eds.). (in press). Preface to a conversation [Special Issue: The Razor’s Edge of Love and Rage]. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.
23.
DavidsT.WillemseK. (Eds.). (2014). Embodied engagements: Feminist ethnography at the crossing of knowledge production and representation—An Introduction. Women’s Studies International Forum, 43, 1-4.
24.
DaviesB.BrowneJ.GannonS.HonanE.LawsC.Mueller-RockstrohB.PetersenE. B. (2004). The ambivalent practices of reflexivity. Qualitative Inquiry, 10, 360-389.
25.
DavisD. A. (2014). Epilogue. Women’s Studies International Forum, 43, 84-87.
26.
DenzinN. (1997). Interpretive ethnography: Ethnographic practices for the 21st century. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
27.
DenzinN. (2013). The death of data?Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 13, 353-356.
28.
DenzinN.LincolnY. (2005). The SAGE handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
29.
DillardC. B. (2000). The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen: Examining an endarkened feminist epistemology in educational research and leadership. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 13, 661-681.
30.
DillardC. B. (2012). Learning to (re)member the things we’ve learned to forget: Endarkened feminisms, spirituality, and the sacred nature of research and teaching. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
31.
DohnN. B. (2011). On the epistemological presuppositions of reflective activities. Educational Theory, 61, 671-708.
32.
EmirbayerM.DesmondM. (2012). Race and reflexivity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 35, 574-599.
33.
EtheringtonK. (2007). Ethical research in reflexive relationships. Qualitative Inquiry, 13, 598-616.
34.
FergusonK. (1991). Interpretation and genealogy in feminism. Signs, 16, 322-339.
35.
FonowM. M.CookJ. (Eds.). (1991). Beyond methodology: Feminist scholarship as lived research. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
36.
GuilleminM.GillamL. (2004). Ethics, reflexivity, and “ethically important moments” in research. Qualitative Inquiry, 10, 261-280.
37.
HarawayD. (1992). The promise of monsters: A regenerative politics for inappropriate/d others. In GrossbergL.NelsonC.TreichlerP. (Eds.), Cultural studies (pp. 295-337). New York, NY: Routledge.
38.
HarawayD. (1997). Modest_witness@secon_ millennium: FemaleMan_meets_ OncoMouse. New York, NY: Routledge.
39.
HardingS. (1987). Introduction: Is there a feminist method? In HardingS. (Ed.), Feminism & methodology (pp. 1-14). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
40.
HemmingsC. (2012). Affective solidarity: Feminist reflexivity and political transformation. Feminist Theory, 13, 147-161.
41.
HillT. E.HolyoakI. C. (2011). Dialoguing difference in joint ethnographic research: Reflections on religion, sexuality, and race. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 187-194.
42.
Holman JonesS. (2011). In BerryK.ClairR. P. (Eds.), Reflecting on the call to ethnographic reflexivity: A collage of responses to questions of contestation. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 199-209.
43.
JacksonA. Y. (2013). Posthumanist data analysis of mangling practices. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26, 741-748. doi:10.1080/09518398.2013.788762
44.
Johnson-BaileyJ. (1999). The ties that bind and the shackles that separate: Race, gender, class, and color in a research process. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 12, 659-670.
45.
KenwayJ.McLeodJ. (2004). Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology and “spaces of points of view”: Whose reflexivity, which perspective?British Journal of Sociology of Education, 25, 525-544.
46.
LatherP. (1986). Research as praxis. Harvard Educational Review, 56, 257-277.
47.
LatherP. (1991). Getting smart: Feminist research and pedagogy with/in the postmodern. New York, NY: Routledge.
48.
LatherP. (1997). Drawing the line at angels: Working the ruins of feminist ethnography. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 10, 285-304.
49.
LatherP. (2006). Foucauldian scientificity: Rethinking the nexus of qualitative research and educational policy analysis. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 19, 783-791.
50.
LatherP. (2007). Getting lost: Feminist efforts toward a double(d) science. Albany: State University of New York Press.
51.
LatherP.St. PierreE. A. (2013). Post-qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26, 629-633. doi:10.1080/09518398.2013.788752
52.
LatourB. (2003). Is re-modernization occurring—And if so, how to prove it?Theory, Culture & Society, 20(2), 35-48.
53.
LugonesM. (1987). Playfulness, “world”-travelling, and loving perception. Hypatia, 2(2), 3-19.
54.
LugonesM. (2006). On complex communication. Hypatia, 21(3), 75-84.
55.
MadisonD. S. (2006). The dialogic performative in critical ethnography. Text and Performance Quarterly, 26, 320-324.
56.
MadisonD. S. (2011a). The labor of reflexivity. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 129-138.
57.
MadisonD. S. (2011b). In BerryK.ClairR. P. (Eds.), Reflecting on the call to ethnographic reflexivity: A collage of responses to questions of contestation. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 199-209.
58.
MarcusG. E. (1994). What comes (just) after “post”? The case of ethnography. In DenzinN.LincolnY. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (pp. 563-574). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
59.
McCreadyL. T. (2004). Understanding the marginalization of gay and gender non-conforming Black male students. Theory Into Practice, 43, 136-143.
60.
Molina-MarkhamE. (2011). In BerryK.ClairR. P. (Eds.), Reflecting on the call to ethnographic reflexivity: A collage of responses to questions of contestation. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 199-209.
61.
MoragaC.AnzaldúaG. (1983). This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color. New York, NY: Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press.
62.
MoreiraC. (2011a). (Un)Safe! Fighting the po-lice in quasi-educational spaces of bathrooms: A betweener’s reflection on the researcher’s body in three intercalated acts. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 145-152.
63.
MoreiraC. (2011b). In BerryK.ClairR. P. (Eds.), Reflecting on the call to ethnographic reflexivity: A collage of responses to questions of contestation. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 199-209.
NencelL. (2014). Situating reflexivity: Voices, positionalities and representations in feminist ethnographic texts. Women’s Studies International Forum, 43, 75-83.
66.
NuciforoE. V. (2011). In BerryK.ClairR. P. (Eds.), Reflecting on the call to ethnographic reflexivity: A collage of responses to questions of contestation. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 199-209.
67.
OakleyA. (1981). Interviewing women: A contradiction in terms. In RobertsH. (Ed.), Doing feminist research (pp. 30-61). London, England: Routledge.
68.
PérezE. (1999). The decolonial imaginary: Writing Chicanas into history. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
69.
PillowW. S. (2003a). Confession, catharsis, or cure: Rethinking the uses of reflexivity as methodological power in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 16, 175-196.
70.
PillowW. S. (2003b). Race-based methodologies: Multicultural methods or epistemological shifts? In LopezG.ParkerL. (Eds.), Interrogating racism in qualitative research methodology (pp. 181-202). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
71.
PillowW. S. (2007a). “Bodies are dangerous”: Using feminist genealogy as policy studies methodology. In BallS.GoodsonI.MaguireM. (Eds.), Education, globalisation, and new times (pp. 139-147). London, England: Routledge.
72.
PillowW. S. (2007b). Searching for Sacajawea: Whitened reproductions and endarkened representations. Hypatia, 22(2), 1-19.
73.
PillowW. S. (in press). Endarkened witnessing as research responsibility. In CruzC.PillowW. S. (Eds.), The Razor’s Edge of Love and Rage in Methodology. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.
74.
PillowW. S.MayoC. (2011). Feminist ethnography: Histories, challenges, and possibilities. In Hesse-BiberS. N. (Ed.), Handbook of feminist research: Theory and praxis (2nd ed., pp. 187-204). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
75.
RichardsonL. (2000). Writing: A method of inquiry. In DenzinN.LincolnY. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 923-943). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
St. PierreE. (2013). The appearance of data. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 13, 223-227.
78.
St. PierreE.PillowW. S. (Eds.). (2000). Working the ruins: Feminist poststructural theory and methods in education. New York, NY: Routledge.
79.
SampsonH.BloorM.FinchamB. (2008). A price worth paying? Considering the “cost” of reflexive research methods and the influence of feminist ways of “doing.”Sociology, 42, 919-933.
80.
SandelowskiM.BarrosoJ. (2002). Finding the findings in qualitative studies. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 34, 213-219.
81.
SedgwickE. (2003). Paranoid reading and reparative reading, or you’re so paranoid, you probably think this essay is about you. In SedgwickE. (Ed.), Touching feeling: Affect, pedagogy, performativity (pp. 123-152). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
82.
SmithL. T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. London, England: Zed Books.
83.
SpivakG. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In NelsonC.GrossbergL. (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture (pp. 271-313). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
84.
StapeleN. V. (2014). Intersubjectivity, self-reflexivity and agency: Narrating about “self” and “other” in feminist research. Women’s Studies International Forum, 43, 13-21.
85.
StronachI.FrankhamJ.Bibi-NawazS.CahillG.CuiV.DymokeK.KjirM. M. (2013). The X-factor: Performing reflexivity as indeterminate praxis. Qualitative Inquiry, 19, 288-297.
86.
StronachI.GarrattD.PearceC.PiperH. (2007). Reflexivity, the picturing of selves, the forging of method. Qualitative Inquiry, 13, 179-203.
87.
SubreenduthS.RheeJ. (2010). A porous, morphing, and circulatory mode of self-other: Decolonizing identity politics by engaging transnational reflexivity. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 23, 331-346. doi:10.1080/09518390903156215
88.
SykesH. (2014). Un-settling sex: Researcher self-reflexivity, queer theory and settler colonial studies. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 6, 583-595. doi:10.1080/2159676X.2014.893899
89.
TatumB. D. (1997). Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? And other conversations about race. New York, NY: Basic Books.
90.
TillmanL. (2011). In BerryK.ClairR. P. (Eds.), Reflecting on the call to ethnographic reflexivity: A collage of responses to questions of contestation. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 199-209.
91.
van OverB. (2011). In BerryK.ClairR. P. (Eds.), Reflecting on the call to ethnographic reflexivity: A collage of responses to questions of contestation. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 199-209.
92.
VillenasS. (1996). The colonizer/colonized Chicana ethnographer: Identity marginalization, and co-optation in the field. Harvard Educational Review, 66, 711-731.
93.
VillenasS. (2000). This ethnography called my back: Writings of the exotic gaze, “othering” Latina, and recuperating Xicanisma. In St. PierreE.PillowW. (Eds.), Working the ruins: Feminist poststructural theory and methods in education (pp. 74-95). New York, NY: Routledge.
94.
VillenasS. (2012). Ethnographies de lucha (of struggle) in Latino education. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 43, 13-19.
95.
VisweswaranK. (1994). Fictions of feminist ethnography. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
96.
WarinJ. (2011). Ethical mindfulness and reflexivity: Managing a research relationship with children and young people in a 14-year Qualitative Longitudinal Research (QLR) study. Qualitative Inquiry, 17, 805-814.
97.
WarrenJ. T. (2011a). Reflexive teaching: Toward critical autoethnographic practices of/in/on pedagogy. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 139-144.
98.
WarrenJ. T. (2011b). In BerryK.ClairR. P. (Eds.), Reflecting on the call to ethnographic reflexivity: A collage of responses to questions of contestation. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 11, 199-209.
99.
WomersleyG.MawA.SwartzS. (2011). The construction of shame in feminist reflexive practice and its manifestations in a research relationship. Qualitative Inquiry, 17, 876-886.
