Negotiating the insider/outsider continua: a Black female hearing perspective on research with Deaf women and Black women

This article discusses a number of epistemological dilemmas faced by a Black female hearing researcher while conducting research with culturally Deaf women during a PhD pilot study. It makes some comparisons with experiences of research with Black women in the same study. It uses a theoretical framework of ‘Africanist Sista-hood in Britain’ to reflect issues of privilege and power in research relationships as well as issues of commonality and difference. It takes the specific experiences of the researcher’s reflections to add to current discourse on insider/outsider positions in research, by applying some of the debates to the discourse of Deaf/hearing relations. It both begins with and ends with perspectives on research as interpretive partial and situated when undertaking any qualitative research study.