My Dissertation Healed Me: A Retrospective Analysis Through Heuristic Inquiry

Abstract

It was my personal experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) that motivated me to undertake my dissertation, but during the process I was haunted by my “IPV survivor” identity. Little did I know that my intellectual pursuit was an invitation into personal healing through heuristic inquiry. During the data collection phase of my dissertation, I unconsciously embarked on the initial engagement phase of heuristic inquiry, but only 2 years after completing my dissertation did I realize I experienced six phases of Moustakas’s (1990) heuristic inquiry. In this article, I share how my dissertation healed me through a retrospective analysis using heuristic inquiry. Through the coresearchers’ narratives, I began the process of embracing my IPV survivor identity—analogous to Kintsugi, the Japanese art of joining broken pottery with gold to form a new version of it. Through this process, I have begun to acknowledge my resiliency and, most importantly, feel empowered to engage with others who have had similar experience, connecting to a collective voice of IPV survivors. Thus, I argue that heuristic inquiry not only transforms the researcher but also has a powerful impact on others (Moustakas, 1990), empowering coresearchers and communities. I conclude with a strong recommendation to foster research of personal experiences, as it has the potential to bridge the gap between theory and practice (hooks, 1994).

The leadership style and motivation of women council candidates in regional New South Wales, Australia: a heuristic inquiry

“…However, there is a prescribed set of six stages a researcher goes through in undertaking a heuristic inquiry and they must be disciplined in their approach to present a successful well-developed study of the phenomenon under investigation. In the present study, the principal researcher was a candidate in the 2017 NSW local government elections and the research followed these six stages: initial engagement; immersion; incubation; illumination; explication; and creative synthesis (Moustakas 1990;Djuraskovic and Arthur 2010;Kenny 2012;Patton 2015;Johnston et al 2017;Kumar 2017).…”

Lessons from insiders: Embracing subjectivity as objectivity in victimology

“…For example, one author studying rape referred to herself as having an ‘investigator-victim perspective’ as she herself had been raped ( Winkler, 1991 : 14; Winkler and Wininger, 1994 : 250) and another speaks of ‘survivor-anthropologists’ such as herself ( Mahmood, 2008 : 10). Some researchers of sexual assault, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and crimes targeting tourists explicitly identified themselves as direct victims of these unlawful acts ( Brison, 2002 ; Cohen, 2019 ; Fletcher, 2018 ; Hayes and Jeffries, 2016 ; Kumar, 2017 ; Mackie, 2009 ; Mahmood, 2008 ; Minge, 2007 ; Railsback, 2020 ; Ross, 2020 ; Stanko, 1992 ; Winkler, 1991 ; Winkler and Hancke, 1995 ; Winkler and Wininger, 1994 ). Researchers studying their own marginalized communities also described experiences akin to direct, indirect, secondary, and tertiary transphobic and Islamophobic victimization ( Gilliam and Swanson, 2020 ; Pearce, 2020 ; Zempi and Awan, 2017 ).…”

“…Indeed, being an insider can help identify topics omitted by outsiders; formulate more sensitive questions which increase participants’ openness; develop more empowering methodologies in which participants are co-investigators rather than mere informants; be more effective in data analysis; and benefit from deeper understanding of their subject matter ( Stoler, 2002 ; Winkler and Wininger, 1994 ; Zempi, 2017 ; Zempi and Awan, 2017 ). Some researchers who have directly been victimized also identify personal benefits to their research: finding hope, voice, and identity; fighting stigma and shame; recognizing resilience; surviving and healing ( Fletcher, 2018 ; Kumar, 2017 ; Mackie, 2009 ; Mahmood, 2008 ; Railsback, 2020 ; Stoler, 2002 ). In that sense, insider victimology can help victims: those who conduct research and those who do not.…”

“…Victimologists’ insider and outsider status is further complicated by a study’s methodological design. Winkler referred to her research participants as investigator-informant-victims as they were involved in co-constructing and analyzing the data ( Winkler and Wininger, 1994 ) while Kumar (2017) refers to her participants as coresearchers. In these cases, authors were insiders who shared similar experiences of direct victimization with their participants.…”

“…Victimologists who choose to embrace subjectivity in their pursuit of objectivity can embody care ethics by engaging in self-care strategies throughout a research project. This includes being aware of and prepared to respond to participants’ emotions; relying on psychotherapy and peer support; engaging in creative, spiritual, and rewarding activities; using fieldnotes and reflexive journals; limiting exposure to traumatic content through a manageable workload; ending the work day with a ritual; and ensuring the research has positive outcomes ( Coles, 2004 ; Coles and Mudaly, 2010 ; Dickson-Swift et al, 2009 ; Johnson, 2009 ; Kinard, 1996 ; Kumar, 2017 ; Kumar and Cavallaro, 2018 ; Nikischer, 2019 ; Stoler, 2002 ). Being prepared may be possible when researching sensitive issues such as violence and abuse or when researching experiences akin to one’s own.…”