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To “reimagine” research, we must start with the how: our methodology. Method is more than technique; it’s a reflection of worldview. Every method carries assumptions about what counts as knowledge, who gets to produce it, and how it should be used.

In most formal research training, especially in the Global North, methods are treated as objective, standardized, and apolitical. But in truth, no method is neutral. Every method is rooted in histories—often colonial ones—that shape what is seen as valid, what is rendered invisible, and who is considered a knower.

This module is an invitation to unlearn the myth of objectivity, recenter relationships, and embrace method as a deeply ethical, relational, and regenerative practice.

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What Are We Reimagining?

We’re not just adding new tools to a Western toolkit. We are rethinking the very assumptions that underlie dominant research models. This includes:

• Who decides what is “good” or “rigorous” research?
  
• Who benefits from the research?
  
• What voices and knowledge systems have been excluded—or harmed?
  

To reimagine method means opening ourselves to Indigenous, feminist, queer, land-based, disabled, and community-rooted knowledge systems, and reshaping our practices accordingly.

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Indigenous Research Methods: A Living Practice

The book Applying Indigenous Research Methods: Storying with Peoples and Communities reminds us that Indigenous research is not a niche specialization but a global, relational, and grounded practice. It challenges the extractive nature of conventional research and centers storying, relational accountability, and community sovereignty.

Storying as Method:

• Storytelling is not a data point to be analyzed; it is a way of being and sharing knowledge in a living, dynamic relationship.
  
• Stories are shared with others, not taken from them.
  
• Researchers are participants in this relationship, not neutral observers.
  

Relationality and Accountability:

• Indigenous methodologies emphasize responsibility to community, land, ancestors, and future generations.
  
• This requires an ongoing relationship before, during, and after research, not just informed consent on paper.
  

Practical Tools in Indigenous Methods:

• Talking circles
  
• Participatory mapping
  
• Ceremony as research practice
  
• Community co-authorship
  
• Land-based inquiry
  
• Conversational interviews (not extractive Q&A)
  

Decolonizing and Asserting Sovereignty:

• Research is not value-neutral; it has often been used to justify colonization, marginalization, and violence.
  
• Decolonial methods work to reclaim knowledge sovereignty and restore control to communities over how research is done and shared.
  

“Research is a ceremony.” — Shawn Wilson

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Citation, Power & What Counts as Knowledge

Western academic research upholds invisible hierarchies through citation practices, reinforcing dominant voices and marginalizing others.

• Citation is performative: When we cite someone, we lend them power and visibility.
  
• As Mott & Cockayne argue, citation often becomes a way of repeating the same privileged voices.
  
• “Valid” knowledge is too often equated with peer-reviewed, English-language, journal-based articles, excluding:
  
  • Oral traditions
    
  • Art and creative practice
    
  • Community reports
    
  • Testimony and lived experience
    
  • Zines, blogs, and podcasts
    

Reimagining method means reimagining knowledge. What we cite, what we teach, and what we recognize all shape what becomes legible.

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Historical Reckoning: Science as a Colonial Tool

We must also recognize the deeply colonial roots of social and natural sciences. Throughout the imperial era, Indigenous peoples were studied, cataloged, and objectified. These histories have not disappeared—they shape current research paradigms.

Social Sciences:

• Indigenous, racialized, and minoritized communities have long been researched about, but rarely with or by themselves.
  
• Decolonial thinkers emphasize that even the scientific method was developed alongside systems of racial classification, empire, and cultural hierarchy.
  

Natural & Medical Sciences:

• From eugenics to unethical experiments (Tuskegee, Henrietta Lacks), science has often dehumanized marginalized communities.
  
• Even today, much medical research is designed around white male bodies, producing flawed and harmful health outcomes for others.
  

This history demands not just ethical checklists, but a radical transformation of research culture.

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Shifts in Thinking: Reimagining Method at Every Level

Dominant Research Paradigm	Reimagined Research Practice
Knowledge is extracted from subjects	Knowledge is co-created in relationship
Researcher is objective and distant	Researcher is present, accountable, and reflexive
Peer-reviewed journals = valid knowledge	Multiple forms of knowing are legitimate
Community is a research “site”	Community is a sovereign partner
Method is fixed and universal	Method is contextual, cultural, and evolving

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Practices to Explore

Positionality Reflection (Before Research Begins)

• Who are you in this research?
  
• What power do you carry (socially, institutionally)?
  
• What are your responsibilities to the community or context?
  
• Who are you accountable to, beyond funders and institutions?
  

Community-Led Method Design

• Ask: How does the community want to be involved?
  
• Use participatory methods (e.g., co-designing interview questions, sharing analysis power)
  
• Allow for non-linear, emergent, and relational processes
  

Multimodal Knowledge Sharing

• Podcasts, community workshops, installations, art, ritual
  
• Don’t wait until “the end” to share back—build reciprocity from the start
  

Tools to Try

• Walking interviews or “go-alongs”
  
• Ethical storytelling workshops
  
• Memory mapping and timeline co-creation
  
• Collaborative zine-making
  
• Circle-based consensus practices
  

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Reflection: “What Is Method For?”

Is your method designed to control, prove, and publish?

Or is it designed to heal, listen, witness, and restore?

This question should guide all method design. At its best, research can be a tool for solidarity, transformation, and deepening care, not just knowledge production.

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Activity: “Ritualizing Method”

Draw or write answers:

1. What feels extractive about your current methods?
   
2. What would a healing or reciprocal method look like?
   
3. Who are you accountable to in your research?
   
4. What objects, actions, or practices ground your process?

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Final Thoughts: Method as Movement

Reimagining method is not a one-time choice—it’s a continuous practice. It means:

• Honoring many ways of knowing.
  
• Being honest about our histories.
  
• Designing research from a place of humility, accountability, and care.
  

In doing so, we not only transform how we research but also who research is for.

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Further Reading

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• Module One: Reimagining Method
• Module Two: Research Spaces Otherwise
• Module Three: Librarians of the Otherwise
• Module Four: Publishing and Power
• Module Five: Commons Otherwise – Decolonial Knowledge for Collective Futures
• Additional Modules
• Learn More + Contribute