Affilia Roundtable: Applying Critical Feminist Principles to Social Work Research

For over 35 years, Affilia has been committed to supporting and publishing feminist social work research. As the first and only feminist social work academic journal, Affilia has provided an important outlet for feminist social work scholarship. Though its original full title was Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work, its name was changed last year to Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work, to better reflect the scope of the journal and the scholarship we publish. The editorial board discussed how to explain this name change as a reflection of our ongoing commitment to using feminist theories and methods to advance social justice. We decided that a useful way would be to announce the name change along with a statement about how we operationalize this commitment through principles for research and practice.

Through collaborative conversation and writing, we developed a set of critical feminist principles to inform our work as editors, as well as to offer guidance to authors and reviewers. Published as the editorial in the first issue of Affilia with its new name, these principles are divided heuristically into the following three areas: conceptual, epistemological, and political. Under conceptual principles, we include: adopt a holistic worldview; embrace complexity and intersectionality; provide context; honor the value of relationships, trust, authenticity, and connection; and emphasize praxis. As epistemological principles, we offer: question certainties and assumptions; reframe questions, problems, dilemmas, and goals; challenge positivism by recognizing partiality of perspective, importance of positionality, and necessity of reflexivity; interrogate "traditional" academic knowledge production; and center the voices and perspectives of subjugated and minoritized people. Finally, we share the following as political principles: recognize that the personal is (still) political; acknowledge and address power and power differentials; commit to liberation; reimagine justice and care; and take a stand.

This roundtable will include members of the Affilia editorial board describing and discussing how we apply these principles in our own research and praxis. It will also offer an opportunity for those in attendance to ask questions and share their own perspectives and experiences. We ended our editorial with the following statement: "Social work is one of few disciplines and professions with an explicit commitment to social justice. Now, more than ever, we need scholarship that challenges all supremacist hierarchies - whether based on race, gender/sex, ability, or any other class that is removed from accountability to others, redresses social work's past and ongoing complicity in the perpetuation of inequities, and provides a vision and roadmap for a more just world. Feminist inquiry is about always asking the next question and connecting the next set of dots, and this perpetual striving and curiosity are energizing. We hope that these critical feminist principles will be useful to our readers, authors, and reviewers as you envision, develop, conduct, and discuss feminist scholarship and praxis. We look forward to ongoing conversation in the pages of Affilia and beyond" (Goodkind et al., 2021, p. 485). This roundtable will provide a space for this ongoing conversation.