Embodied reflexivity in voice-only interviewing: Navigating gender in difficult-to-access contexts

Abstract

This article reflects on my experiences as a male researcher using voice-only WhatsApp interviews to study women's affect and Taliban violence in Pakistan's Swat Valley. It considers the opportunities and constraints posed by doing research in supposedly disembodied online space. It also positions remote voice-only interviews as both embodied and embedded practices. This understanding situates the embodied reflexivity and gendered positionality of the researcher in relation to research participants—a relationship largely absent in online, qualitative voice-only interviewing literature. While internet-mediated settings do indeed offer some opportunities, their ability to circumvent gender boundaries is largely over-celebrated and has not received enough critical attention. I demonstrate why researcher feelings, positionality, and embodied reflexivity should be central concerns in post-COVID online, voice-only interviewing.