Dr. Dusty Johnstone

Note & Trigger Warning

Hi everyone. Before you start reading I wanted to give you a heads up -- the research in this spotlight includes (non-explicit) descriptions of sexual assault and rape, as well as discussions about what 'counts' as rape and the self-blaming and recrimination people experience after being assaulted. If you find any of this upsetting and/or triggering, please remember that you have a choice of which spotlights to complete and can pick one of the others with no penalty.

If you find yourself experiencing distress, there are a bunch of resources here at NC State (including the Counseling Center, 919.515.2423, and the Sexual Violence Phone Line, 919.515.4444). Please take care of yourselves! If you’d like to provide feedback on the spotlight (or any of the others) you can do so anonymously at this link or through email to hlperki2@ncsu.edu.

Dr. Johnstone & Searching for Words

Dr. Dusty Johnstone is the coordinator of the Sexual Misconduct Response and Prevention Office at the University of Windsor. Her primary role is to provide support to members of the campus community who have experienced sexual violence. She is also responsible for coordinating campus-wide sexual assault awareness campaigns, developing training for staff and faculty, and implementing best-practice educational programs for students.

Dusty has been a member of the University of Windsor community since 2005. She completed both her MA and PhD degrees in the Department of Psychology. Dusty taught in Women’s and Gender Studies for five years, overseeing the implementation of the University of Windsor’s nationally recognized Bystander Initiative to End Sexual Assault. Her research on women’s experiences of rape has been recognized by the American Psychological Association, and she has been awarded for her innovative teaching of sexual violence for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

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Understanding the Qualitative Approach

Before getting started, watch a short clip from an online textbook (you can view all of the videos in the series here). In this video, Dr. Johnstone talks about her approach some of the theoretical frameworks and philosophical paradigms that she draws from.

Unlike quantitative research, which is founded on principles of objectivity, qualitative research emphasizes the role that the researcher (and their attitudes and beliefs) plays in collecting and interpreting data. As Dr. Johnstone talks, think about how you might articulate your own philosophy, passion, and approach to research of all kinds.

Activity: How to Listen Carefully and Deliberately

We often think of listening as a straightforward activity that happens automatically -- i.e., someone talks, we recognize the words, and we understand their meaning. When working as a qualitative researcher, however, it's important to remember that this process isn't automatic and certainly isn't foolproof, and the habits that serve us in conversation don't work as well in research. The famous quote from author Stephen R. Covey (pictured to the right) expresses this idea well.

As a researcher, your job is to listen intently and deliberately, and then communicate that process of listening and understanding to the reader. This will require you to challenge your own assumptions and interrogate your conclusions over and over again. Having a framework that helps you understand how and what to challenge is essential, and so we'll explore what that is like and how it impacts results.

The quote below is from a participant in one of Dr. Johnstone’s studies, titled “A Listening Guide Analysis of Women’s Experiences of Unacknowledged Rape”. In this study. Dr. Johnstone asked women about past unwanted sexual experiences, and analyzed how they responded, both the content of their statements and the words they used. Take a moment to read and reflect on the quote and your response to it.

Participant Quote: "Like I thought it was really, really embarrassing and just really, you know, it was, it was sad that I allowed something like that to happen. So, it was that and it was just the fact that, you know, that the guy didn’t really acknowledge it, so I was like, well . . . you know, it’s my fault, I was . . . so yeah, it was just a lot, a lot of burden on that, on that front. And so, I didn’t know how to tell people that you know that I got really drunk and I had sex with someone even though I didn’t want to, and I blanked out half way and I didn’t know what I was doing..."

Pre-Reflection

What was your reaction when you were reading? Was it physical (e.g., wincing or fidgeting), emotional (e.g., sad or confused), or cognitive (e.g., analytical or logical)? When reflecting on the participant's internal state, can you pinpoint specific words or phrases used that indicate what's going on beneath the surface? You'll likely find that your own thoughts and emotions help you understand the participants' -- what is this like?

Reflections #1-3

Now that you have reflected on the experience of 'listening to understand', let's look at the framework Dr. Johnstone used in the study. The quotes to the right are taken from the introduction to the study, in which Dr. Johnstone discussed and justified her qualitative approach. These questions should require only short answers (e.g., a few sentences).

First: In your own words, what does this mean?

Second: Here, Dr. Johnstone is identifying a problem in how research is practiced and providing a potential solution through her study. In your own words, what is the problem statement, and how is the qualitative research approach described her a solution?

Third: In this section, Dr. Johnstone builds on her identification of the problem to explain how and why it occurs. What does she mean when she says: “In the absence of representative language, women are forced to translate their experiences ... The disadvantage of translation is that it is imperfect; often a part of the experience is rendered invisible or incomplete”?

Study Text

First: According to DeVault (1999), as researchers we are used to translating the experiences of women and other socially muted groups (Ardener, 1975) into a standardized vocabulary of experience.

Second: The practice of translation is consistent with the rape acknowledgment literature, as women are usually given the closed-ended, dichotomous choice of identifying as either raped or not. Moving beyond this standardized, dichotomous vocabulary and directly accessing women’s language through qualitative methods is an important step towards both representing and understanding women’s experiences. Further, qualitative methods provide an important opportunity for us to examine how women who have been raped may be obliged to engage in their own processes of translation.

Third: Feminist scholars, such as DeVault (1991) and Spender (1980), have explained that language develops out of the experiences of those in power. The experiences of women, a historically disempowered group, are not necessarily reflected in the language that is available to them. In the absence of representative language, women are forced to translate their experiences by using labels that are not quite right or by using language in unconventional ways—a process that DeVault (1999) describes as linguistic incongruence. The disadvantage of translation is that it is imperfect; often a part of the experience is rendered invisible or incomplete because the translation is only an approximation.

Post-Reflection

To finish up, read the highlighted sections in the provided PDF. She identifies patterns and themes in the content as well as distinctive 'voices', or characteristic ways that participants talked about their experiences. This section includes the participant quote you saw previously. Compare this section to the paragraph you wrote for the Pre-Reflection earlier. How is your response similar and/or different from Dr. Johnstone's? What are some things she says or does to support her interpretation?

johnstone.pdf

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