Capturing queer and trans lives and identities: The promise of research poems to inform stigma research.

Abstract

Research on queer and trans people is frequently situated within a theoretical frame and discourse of stigma. While revealing key effects of marginalization, consistent centering of stigmatized experiences limits the ability of research to destabilize stigma or provide nuanced counternarratives. Qualitative methods provide unique opportunities to produce research with the goal of resisting stigma and attending to the strengths of queer and trans people. One innovative qualitative method with promise is the research poem. Research poems are created from the words of participants to represent a concise, but a rich representation of qualitative data and findings and can be used as a method of analysis, interpretation, and/or dissemination of findings. As two queer-identified scholars engaged in research with younger and older queer and trans populations, we have utilized research poems in distinct ways. In a study of rural queer and trans youth, a research poem was created utilizing short quotes from participants to illustrate their diversity of experience and agentive individual responses to and resilience in the face of adversity and published as a stand-alone narrative. In a study of older bisexual-identified women, a research poem was created to summarize definitions and meanings attributed to bisexuality, where the poem was presented within the findings section of a more traditional empirical article. We describe our own experiences utilizing this qualitative tool and discuss, more broadly, the potential contributions of research poems as a qualitative method for engaging, revealing, and resisting stigma within marginalized lives.

“What Do You Think Needs to be Done to Address Self-Harm?”: Centering the Perspectives of Youth Who Engage in Self-Harm Through Found Poetry

“…To overcome these tensions, we determined that presenting the findings in the form of found poetry—that is, using direct phrases from participant transcripts and constructing poems from them—was the most fitting way to ensure the insights and stories these youth so thoughtfully shared with us were centered in the analytic process (Cousik, 2014; Jen & Paceley, 2021). Found poems contribute to the accumulation of knowledge in complementary ways to more traditional quantitative and qualitative methods by reducing large quantities of data into potent, compelling, and affective bodies of content that capture the natural rhythms and language of participant contributions (Furman et al, 2006; Poindexter, 2002).…”

“…We hope that presenting the direct words of our participants will evoke similar emotions in our readers. As scholars seek to focus on the lived experiences of individuals who engage in self-harm, we encourage the use of poetry and other creative methodologies as ways of amplifying those perspectives, and to understand self-harm as a lived and narrated experience (Cousik, 2014; Jen & Paceley, 2021).…”

‘Youth are not something to check off your to do list’: Poetic inquiry into the symbols youth, parents and professionals use to reimagine supports for youth in foster care

“…These methods, including poetic inquiry, support the development of knowledge that may be more difficult to generate when using traditional quantitative and qualitative methods (Gunaratnam, 2007; Huss & Sela‐Amit, 2019). As one specific type of art‐based research method, poetic research methods have been utilized to collect and represent data that center participants' voices (Clark & Jen, 2022; Corley, 2020; Jen & Paceley, 2020; Leavy, 2018). Additionally, traditional quantitative and qualitative methods may inadvertently reproduce the stigma and systemic issues they aim to address (Jen & Paceley, 2020).…”

“…As one specific type of art‐based research method, poetic research methods have been utilized to collect and represent data that center participants' voices (Clark & Jen, 2022; Corley, 2020; Jen & Paceley, 2020; Leavy, 2018). Additionally, traditional quantitative and qualitative methods may inadvertently reproduce the stigma and systemic issues they aim to address (Jen & Paceley, 2020). In contrast, creative and arts‐based research fits with approaches that aim to engage people who have been marginalized by our systems because they can radically center peoples' unique reality, allowing them to name that reality as valid and making space for audiences to hear and understand the lived experience from an affective stance (Jen & Paceley, 2020).…”

“…Poetic inquiry allows the use of language in unique ways (Poindexter, 2002) to better understand the context and emotional aspects of participants' experiences (Furman et al, 2006). As with creative and arts‐based methods more broadly, research poems can increase understanding of marginalized identities or experiences, as well as resist stigma by illustrating the complexity of a stigmatized experience (Jen & Paceley, 2020). Research poems may also have important utility for exploring complex relationships (Langer & Furman, 2004).…”