Description
This groundbreaking collection explores the complexities of researching the lives of lesbian and queer women. It critically interrogates the concept of ‘lesbian’, especially as applied to research praxis. Who or what is a ‘lesbian’ and why does this category matter? How is research shaped by such categorisations and why? What does it mean for research that identities can be fluid and changing? Further, this collection examines social formation of power from an intersectional perspective in relation to lesbian and queer women’s experiences, exploring complex tensions and inequalities in relation to class, race and trans identities for example. These chapters by world-renowned scholars bring together compelling accounts of research dilemmas, ethics, sensitivities and nuances that will resonate for many researchers.
This book highlights how gender, sexuality and power intersect within and beyond the research project, illuminating how research can generate new questions as well as provide important insights.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies.
Table of Contents
1. Que(e)rying Methodology: Lessons and Dilemmas from Lesbian Lives: An Introduction
Róisín Ryan-Flood and Alison Rooke
2. The Re-Making of Sexual Kinds: Queer Subjects and the Limits of Representation
Lisa Blackman
3. The Lady Vanishes: On Never Knowing, Quite, Who Is a Lesbian
Kath Weston
4. Queer in the Field: On Emotions, Temporality, and Performativity in Ethnography
Alison Rooke
5. Researching Domestic Violence in Same-Sex Relationships—A Feminist Epistemological Approach to Survey Development
Marianne Hester and Catherine Donovan
6. Producing Cosmopolitan Sexual Citizens on The L Word
Kellie Burns and Cristyn Davies
7. Complexities and Complications: Intersections of Class and Sexuality
Yvette Taylor
8. Researching "Race" in Lesbian Space: A Critical Reflection
Nina Held
9. Queering Representation: Ethics and Visibility in Research
Róisín Ryan-Flood
