Queering Methodology: Lessons and Dilemmas from Lesbian Lives

This groundbreaking collection explores the complexities of researching the lives of lesbian and queer women. It critically interrogates the concept of ’lesbian’, especially as applied to research praxis. Who or what is a ’lesbian’ and why does this category matter? How is research shaped by such categorisations and why? What does it mean for research that identities can be fluid and changing? Further, this collection examines social formation of power from an intersectional perspective in relation to lesbian and queer women’s experiences, exploring complex tensions and inequalities in relation to class, race and trans identities for example. These chapters by world-renowned scholars bring together compelling accounts of research dilemmas, ethics, sensitivities and nuances that will resonate for many researchers.

This book highlights how gender, sexuality and power intersect within and beyond the research project, illuminating how research can generate new questions as well as provide important insights.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies.

Róisín Ryan-Flood is Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Centre for Intimate and Sexual Citizenship at the University of Essex, UK. Her books include Lesbian Motherhood: Gender, Families and Sexual Citizenship (2009) and Transnationalising Reproduction: Third Party Conception in a Globalised World (Routledge, 2018). She is co-editor of the journal Sexualities.

Alison Rooke is a writer and researcher. After a long association with Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, where she was Senior Lecturer, she became the Director of the social research company Art of Regeneration.