Seventeenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, research ethics boards at academic institutions across Canada put limitations and restrictions on in-person research. Social science researchers who work with marginalized communities using arts-based methods faced significant barriers to continuing their programs of research during this time. This paper offers critical reflection and suggestions for best practices for engaging in ethical feminist participatory virtual arts-based research. We draw on examples from our program of study including two virtual Photovoice studies: Wading through the Weeds: A public health response to mothers who consume cannabis during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and Women Growing Older: older women’s experiences of accessing and consuming cannabis.During the pandemic, we engaged forty participants in virtual arts-based research through Photovoice workshops. Photovoice centres around taking photographs, sharing photographs with other participants, and engaging in collective dialogue about shared experience and necessary social change and lends itself well to a virtual platform through relying on digital photography and Zoom video conferencing. Participants included people who have traditionally faced barriers to participating in in-person research as a result of social inequities including but not limited to: mobility, place, isolation, poverty, racism, and child welfare involvement. During this presentation, we will share our methodological approach to engaging in Photovoice workshops as a tool for addressing the exclusion of women who have traditionally faced barriers to participating in research. We will offer some reflections on the potential for merging technology and the arts in research and share some of the methodological complexities that have emerged through our work.