Corridor Talk contains contributions from feminist scholars from across Canada from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. When the anthropologist Paul Rainbow coined the term, 'corridor talk,' he used it to refer to information that was relegated to side chats with colleagues, information that was not to be included in field notes, manuscripts or journal articles. These were the unimportant details or 'gossip' concerning a person's research, although he noted that a person's reputation often hinged on such discussions. Most feminist scholars, like many working within the realm of qualitative methodology, have for many years, rejected this discourse of 'unimportant details' and have chosen instead to document experiences and struggles during the research process as a way of exploring such issues as: whose interests are served by the research, what is the purpose(s) of the research, what are the goals of the research? In this book, graduate students, sessionals, independent scholars, community members, as well as established scholars, have an opportunity to share their experiences with the reader about doing feminist research, including the pitfalls, the benefit of hindsight, the 'what ifs' and the 'ah ha' moments. By sharing stories about the emotional struggles and methodological dilemmas that occur in the process of doing feminist research, the authors provide researchers, both seasoned and new, an invaluable inside look at conducting feminist research.

Rachel Carson Berman is an Associate Professor at Ryerson University in the School of Early Childhood Studies. She's worked with a variety of community groups and research teams throughout her academic career and has published on a variety of topics, including mothering, immigrant women, and children’s perceptions of school. Her work has been published in such qualitative journals as Qualitative Inquiry, The International Journal of Qualitative Methods, and Qualitative Health Research. Prior to joining Ryerson she taught courses on feminist research at McMaster University and York University. She is very pleased to have the opportunity to bring together the work of feminist scholars from across Canada in one volume in the edited collection Corridor Talk: Feminist Scholars Share their Stories of Research Partnerships.

Rachel Berman's profile page

"Each chapter in this book reclaims what is considered 'corridor talk,' soft science if not 'gossip,' and assigns it to its rightful place in the research process. Contributions give legitimacy to reflexivity, experiential knowledge, participatory action research (PAR), an ethics of care, respect, and the importance of the relational and power asymmetries in research. The diversity of research experiences and demographic groups contributes to make this volume an interesting read."--Maroussia Hajdukowski-Ahmed, Professor Emeria, Département de français and Graduate Programme of Gender Studies and Feminist Research, McMaster University