Unruly Embodiment as Feminist Research Methodology: Reflections on Uncomfortable Spaces and Care Ethics in a Heat Stress Collaborative Project

Abstract

Embodiment methodologies foreground the role of the researcher’s body within qualitative inquiry. By reflecting on a heat stress project, we build on sensorial feminism and feminist care ethics to argue for a praxis of unruly embodiment. This includes: (1) recognition of moments when the body or environment viscerally demands attention and overrides the researchers’ cognitive sense of mastery and agency; (2) attentiveness to mis-attunements, discomforts, avoidances, spatiotemporal ruptures, and feelings of alienation in place; and (3) that these two modes of attention can only be achieved by carefully foregrounding the researchers’ social positionalities and their shifting, situational impacts within research.