I have absolutely loved my experiences in the lab thus far. Over the past two weeks, my mentor and I spent hours upon hours writing and finalizing IRB paperwork. I spent many of these days at my new favorite coffee shop (shoutout Vertex Coffee!) sipping an oat-milk Chai latte. With plants and queer art everywhere, the space feels super calming – I’d recommend it to any of you.
While preparing for IRB submission, my mentor gave me a lot of responsibility for writing drafts and implementing feedback. I feel like I really “took charge” for many of the required documents. While the work was sometimes intimidating, I found that this role fundamentally shaped my knowledge of the research process, giving me insight into the legal avenue in which research takes place.
As a Gender and Health minor, I am well-versed in topics of gender/sexuality. However, when creating the screening form, I was unsure how to approach this topic. I pondered how to ask someone I had never met about their personal identity. After reading published papers and consulting with experts on the topic, I learned how to go about this in such a way that is not offensive or harmful (or perceived as such). Before this, I had not considered how social politics can influence one’s decision to participate in a study.
In these instances, I reflect on my identity and how I would like the topic to be approached. My gender and sexuality inform the way that I think about social identity, which is important to acknowledge. In this light, I am able to step back from who I am as a researcher and think about the ways in which others may conduct their study to ensure that I am employing ethical processes and research methods.