Hand in hand: refusing research during a pandemic

Zuleika Sheik*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

What does it mean to refuse research during a pandemic? The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to reckon with old wounds and underlying conditions, particularly the ways in which these extreme inequalities are circumvented in research. In addressing pandemic failures the article addresses the ways in which research is complicit and how research has been re-invented under the conditions of the pandemic yet is still under the logics of extractivism and in service of the neoliberal university. Using refusal and abolition as generative theoretical groundings, the article seeks radical alternatives to reclaiming research as practice. Through the retraditioning of knowledges through ancestry, spirituality and positionality we can start to reclaim research as practice. Thus, in our refusal to go back to ‘normal’, practicing research becomes the first step in organizing in anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-colonial and anti-racist ways.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)225-237
Number of pages13
JournalGlobalizations
Volume20
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
I would like to honour and give recognition to my Mum, Farida Sheik for inspiring sections of this article. A thank you to the participants of the 2020 Transitions to Social Justice Lab for your openness and reciprocity. Finally, I would like to thank Rosalba Icaza and Constance Dupuis for their meaningful comments on the first draft and to the two reviewers for the care, consideration and supportive feedback which helped to strengthen the article.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

  • Refusal
  • research
  • ethics
  • relationality
  • social justice

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