Within the digital globe where connections are found,
reflexive researchers, intellectually bound.
With a voice note and text, they bridge the divide,
uniting research, far and wide.

While reflecting on my positionality,
I met another who shared a strand
of my ethnicity,
We spoke about our research,
and how its threads weave in our culture.
Our eyes widened, as we laughed.
“I thought I was the only one,”
we cried, and then in unison, we sighed.

Truth is and was and will be:
We are out there in thousand folds of many.

Through their interactions ideas ignite,
as minds come together, new projects take flight.
From research to art, across domains they travel,
whilst using a reflexive attitude, their positionality they unravel.

Turns out research is not just research.

Research spans histories, identities,
blood, sweat, tears,
slavery, and colonialism.
Revolution and resistance,
It is. Of researchers.
By, for, and from too.
Where we go, intersectionality follows.
To not acknowledge this — is
not-rigorous, not-integrity, and
not-quite-truly-academic, rather
almost-certainly-asymmetrical.
Unjust and unequal.

But see, research is not just research,
and your dismissal does not stop us.

Within the digital globe where connections are found,
reflexive researchers, intellectually bound.
With a voice note and text, they bridge the divide,
uniting research, far and wide.

Author Biographies

Sanaa Hyder is a Chartered Psychologist, who is currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of Manchester. Her doctoral research examines communication between general practitioners and ethnic minority patients in the United Kingdom.

Aman Rattan is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Health Services Studies, the University of Kent. Her ethnographic research explores the perceptions and understandings of mental health among the Sikh community in Kent, across generations and healthcare sectors. Rattan uses Community Engagement and Involvement, intersectional and creative audio-visual approaches.

Ethics and Funding Statement

No ethical approval was required for this poetic contribution.

Sanaa Hyder’s doctoral research is funded by the University of Manchester.

Aman Rattan's doctoral research is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Applied Research Collaboration Kent, Surrey & Sussex. 

How to cite this poem: Hyder, S. and Rattan, A. (2024). Reflexive Researchers. ‘Race’ and Socially Engaged Research Working Paper 2023: Contributions from inaugural conference held in York. Volume 1, pp. 17-19, https://sites.google.com/view/raceandsociallyengagedresearch/publications/working-paper/2024-volume-1