Accountability in Gender Based Violence Research: Centering Relationality in Building Knowledge

A long-standing critique of social work research is that it has extracted knowledge from communities, has benefited researchers in terms of their own advancement more than the communities in which research has been conducted, and has often been repackaged into practices and policies that do not make sense in the local context, or, at worst, forward colonial objectives. Academic accountability structures, such as prioritizing an ever-increasing demand for productivity in academic journals and considering community engagement as extra-curricular activity rather than as central to scholarship, create barriers to the time-intensive labor of working alongside, generating understanding, and being accountable to communities that support this scholarship. Given the above historical and contemporary realities, our roundtable goal is to critically consider the meanings and practices of accountability in our research, with a focus on relationality as a guiding principle. Relationality acknowledges there is an interconnectedness between beings, in this case between individuals, communities and researchers. As relationships are built and deepened, researcher accountability to the participants and communities increases. To this roundtable, the presenters bring our own experiences, including work with Indigenous communities in the United States related to practitioners views on historical trauma as a contributor to intimate partner violence, cultural and linguistic adaptation of a trauma-informed, group-based curriculum to promote survivors’ sexual health, strategies to address domestic violence in Pokhara, Nepal; and developing anti-oppressive and anti-racist research practices with research teams working collaboratively with community/organizational partners. After the presenters introduce ourselves and the topic of the roundtable, we will ask participants to share what brought them to the roundtable, how they conceptualize accountability in research, and what they hope to gain from our time together. Each presenter will then briefly share what accountability has meant in the context of our research, including the positionalities and relationships that shape our experiences of accountability, and why we feel it is important. To frame our discussion, we will share a relational framework for accountability that includes the importance of gaining trust, respect, reciprocity, and responsibility to participants/communities. Other issues we will discuss include accountability in relation to building partnerships, embeddedness within communities, honoring tribal sovereignty and community advisory boards, humility, repair, and representation. We will then use the following guiding questions to further critical discussion and reflections:

1. What does accountability mean to each of us? Why does it matter? 2. To whom and how have we sought to be accountable in our research related to gender-based violence? 3. How do our relationships and positionalities relative to research participants, service providers, and/or community members, shape our experiences of accountability in gender-based violence research? 4. What challenges have we faced in regard to accountability to communities in research? 5. How can departments, universities, or academia more broadly support research that is accountable to research participants and communities?

To close the discussion, we will ask participants what they are taking away from the roundtable, and how they intend to deepen practices of accountability in their research, departments, or universities.