Qualitative Psychology, Vol 11(3), Oct 2024, 315-327; doi:10.1037/qup0000318
This article engages in a methodological consideration of how the study of researchers’ lived experience is incorporated into qualitative research. I provide a brief description of the feminist concept of epistemic privilege, the research ethic which undergirds the consideration of how researchers’ lived experiences affect their investigations. As well, concepts of strong objectivity and intersubjective recognition are examined as foundational for this exploration. From this foundation, the consideration of the lived experiences of both participants and researchers in qualitative studies is understood to enhance the fidelity and utility of research findings. A uniform approach to requiring researchers to have had, or to disclose having had, an experience under study can lead to problems, however, on methodological, political, and social justice grounds, and instead, a nuanced consideration of these issues can be beneficial. Toward this end, I enumerate central qualitative research strategies to: (a) address researchers’ lived experiences of both similarity and difference from their research topic and (b) strengthen the incorporation of insights from both participants and researchers who have had the lived experience under study. Through this discussion, I refer to examples drawn from the articles in this issue of Qualitative Psychology that demonstrate a variety of procedures through which authors addressed epistemic privilege. The editorial concludes with gratitude to the many reviewers who have contributed to our journal over this year and, by doing so, have supported the advancement of compelling qualitative research in our field. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)