Reflecting on the Researcher-Participant Relationship: A Conversation About Research Ten Years on

Abstract This commentary features a written conversation between a researcher and a former participant. In this conversation, the pair reflects on their decade-long relationship since taking part in a research project about the everyday experiences of queer and trans youth. In this piece, they respond to questions from one another about their memories of and reflections on having taken part in this process, including questions about research ethics, navigating the research-participant relationship (during fieldwork and in the years afterwards), the politics of representation of queer and trans youth, and what it feels like to have one’s life documented and analyzed. Such a conversation is important as it offers insight into what it feels like to embody the position of researcher and participant that is rarely discussed in scholarship, especially on or about young people. This piece will also consider what it is like for the former participant to engage with the outputs from the research project as they aged out of the traditional range considered as “youth” and reflect upon systemic challenges the pair faced in collaborating on writing projects in the past. The conversational tone of this article will invite readers of all backgrounds into the discussion about reflexivity in research.