109 Powerful art: using arts-based methods and critical theory to support a participatory research process

Abstract PTH 9: Miscellaneous 2, B302 (FCSH), September 5, 2025, 11:30 - 12:24 Aims The aim of this presentation is to offer critical insights into the process of doing participatory research on women’s reproductive health with a team of migrant and ethnic minority women in Ireland. The study explores levers and barriers that influence decision-making, consent and autonomy in migrant and ethnic minority women’s experiences of reproductive healthcare. We adopted a participatory methodology, involving bilingual peer researchers from refugee, migrant and ethnic minority communities in all stages of the research process. In this presentation, we focus on the first phase of the research, which involved team-building, training, and co-designing the research questions. Methods In this presentation, we discuss the research process rather than the findings, investigating power dynamics and the role of arts-based methods in supporting a peer research model. We used arts-based methods (music and visual arts) during team meetings to help us reflect on the research process as well as explore any particular themes arising from the collaborative work. Results Our reflections show that in a diverse research team such as ours, with people from different national, ethnic, cultural, social and educational backgrounds, arts-based methods can constitute culturally attuned methods that foster collaboration and critical reflection when combined with critical theory and emancipatory approaches to research. We offer examples of music and visual arts methods that we used and how these created a safe space for critical reflections, while also offering insights into some of the challenges we faced in this first phase of the research. Conclusions Arts-based methods, especially when grounded in critical theory, can be used to effectively cater for the needs of a diverse, participatory research team by offering creative processes that can promote group coherence and enable participation, inclusion, equity and exploration of new perspectives in migration research.