Dr. Rochelle Stevenson, Dr. Wendy Hulko
HRSJ 5030 significantly changed the way I think about research, not just as an academic exercise, but as a practice shaped by ethics, relationships, and responsibility. When we began, I thought of research methods mostly in technical terms: choosing a methodology, collecting data, analyzing results. By the end, those steps felt inseparable from questions about power, positionality, and the impact our work has on the communities we study. This course differed from the undergraduate research methods courses that I have taken in the past in that it delved deeper into the ethics and researcher responsibility roles.
One of the most valuable parts of the course was learning to move between quantitative and qualitative approaches without treating them as opposing camps. Instead, we explored how each method opens up different kinds of questions and different ways of seeing the world. Understanding the strengths and limitations of each helped me think more critically about what kinds of knowledge I’m actually trying to produce, and why.
Engaging with Indigenous and anti‑colonial research approaches was especially transformative. It pushed me to reconsider assumptions I didn’t even realize I was carrying about what counts as “valid” knowledge, how data should be gathered, and who benefits from research. Learning about methodologies practiced in the global south, and the histories that shaped them, made me more aware of the political and social implications of research, especially when it’s framed as “social justice” work. It reminded me that research can reproduce harm just as easily as it can challenge it.
The discussions about fieldwork (its unpredictability, its ethical dilemmas, and its emotional labour) were grounding. We talked honestly about the challenges researchers face such as gaining trust, navigating institutional requirements, responding to unexpected situations, and recognizing when our presence might be intrusive or extractive. Thinking through these issues collectively helped me feel more prepared, but also more humble about what it means to enter someone else’s space with a research agenda.
Designing a full research proposal and ethics application was one of the most demanding parts of the course, but also one of the most rewarding. It forced me to bring together everything we’d been learning: methodological choices, ethical considerations, political implications, and the practical realities of fieldwork. It made the idea of doing a research project feel more tangible and more grounded in responsibility rather than just academic ambition.
By the end of the course, I felt more confident evaluating different methodologies, more aware of the ethical stakes of research, and more capable of designing a project that is thoughtful, rigorous, and accountable. I also learned a lot about my own habits as a researcher: how I plan, how I write, how I respond to feedback, and how I collaborate with others.
globalindigenousvoice.org 