What happens when researchers speak of «vulnerable» participants, and institutional guidelines list specific measures to «protect them»? Though well-intended, this approach relies on undisputed normative assumptions and overlooks vulnerability as a fundamental condition of being human.
In this event, we want to reframe dominant presuppositions on the topic as open-ended questions and address them from the situated position of researchers professionally and personally engaged in sensitive research processes.
The workshop has a hybrid format featuring invited speakers’ presentations from across the health sciences and anthropology followed by guided activities and discussion for the audience to take home new tools to address and embrace vulnerability in research.
Federica Cavaletti (AIAS, Aarhus University), “Closeness and distance in participatory research. Notes from a project in neurodiversity studies”
Sofía Seinfeld (Psychology and Educational Sciences Department, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya), “On vulnerability: Reflections from embodying domestic violence in VR”
Maria Louw (School of Culture and Society - Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University), “Being porous. Spiritual giftedness in Kyrgyzstan and what it may teach us about vulnerability”
Morten Deleuran Terkildsen (Department of Clinical Medicine - Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Aarhus University), “Vulnerable to whom? Risk, care and the challenge of forensic psychiatry”
08:30 Arrival and breakfast
09:00 Welcome
09:15 Session I: two speakers (5 mins of silence or drawing/marking after each to reflect on what was heard)
10:15 Questions to the speakers
10:30 Movement intervention - Stephanie Ellison (AU)
10:45 Break
11:00 Session II: two speakers
12:00 Questions to the speakers
12:15 Lunch
13:30 Hands-on session (tools to apply the presented methods to their own research)
14:30 Break
14:45 Walk and talk, including drawing/marking activity
15:30 Sharing of insights and final talk/outview
16:00 End of day
The workshop is open to all and free of charge by prior registration.
The event is a joint initiative of AIAS and the Health Transitions research program at the School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University.
It is organized by Rikke Sand Andersen, Federica Cavaletti, David Ekdhal, Katrin Heimann, Lotte Meinart, Mette Terp Høybye, and Gitte Vandborg Rasmussen.
