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Paper short abstract:

I aim to bring a reflexive perspective on navigating complex researcher positionalities in culturally and geopolitically sensitive contexts. My paper unpacks hybrid identities and presents ethical fieldwork practices and approaches for challenging addressing the insider-outsider spectrum.

Paper long abstract:

The discourse on decolonising global health and development studies underscores the importance of reflexively examining researcher positionality. Researchers often navigate fluid, hybrid identities that challenge the insider-outsider dichotomy, shaped by ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and professional background markers. This paper critically engages with these dynamics through a reflexive analysis of my doctoral research experience as an Egyptian researcher in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Drawing on Cunliffe and Karunanayake's "four hyphen-spaces" framework—Personal-Professional, Professional-Political, Political-Personal, and Personal-Epistemological—I explore the intersections of identity and their implications for fieldwork.

By interrogating the tension between perceived and self-realised positionality, including dimensions of gender, professional identity, religious beliefs and ethnic origin, I analyse how my identity influenced interactions with participants, data collection, and research framing. The analysis reveals the limitations of binary positionality frameworks, instead advocating for a dynamic spectrum that accounts for the complexity of context-specific identities. The findings highlight the strategic management of positionality as critical for fostering credibility, approachability, and ethical engagement with research participants.

This paper contributes to the broader debate on researcher positionality by providing a nuanced account of conducting research in a geopolitically complex, culturally diverse, and historically fraught context. It offers valuable insights for researchers navigating hybrid identities in the global South, encouraging a more reflexive and contextually grounded approach to global health and development studies.