Relational Research as Justice-Doing and Messy Practice

In this conversation with Tahereh, Vikki speaks of her work to bridge the worlds of social justice activism and relational research and the helping professions. Vikki names her work as A supervision of Solidarity and this directs a relationship to research that attends to an ethics of justice-doing and a decolonizing stance. This ethical stance addresses an intersectionality of power and subjugation, and the collective ethics inherent in the work. Vikki makes public her practices to resist participating in the exploitation of people being researched, and practices for accountability to communities of struggle. The hope is to make space for people structurally denied voice in academia, and bringing the relational research practices of Indigenous knowledge keepers, and subjugated over-researched communities. Vikki’s work is particularly tied to Sally St George & Dan Wulff’s ideas of practice as research, and this speaks to the activist ethics at the heart of Vikki’s approach.

Vikki Reynolds, Ph.D.

Vikki is an activist, therapist, and adjunct professor. She lives in British Columbia, Canada. For more information, visit Vikki’s Associate page.

Click the image to access the video.

On YouTube, to add subtitles and choose your language: click CC at the bottom of the video to turn subtitles on, then click the Settings icon, go to Subtitles/CC, choose English or Auto-Translate and your desired language.