Positionality in Information Studies Research of Visuality: Ethical and Epistemological Considerations

This panel, co-sponsored by ASIS&T SIG-VIS (Visualization, Images, & Sound) and SIG-DL (Digital Libraries), has two purposes. First, it briefly discusses panelists' recent research projects on visual forms of knowledge production and documentation. Their approaches involve collecting visual forms of data or studying contexts in which information practices involve visual information formats or regimes of graphical information creation. Second, this panel draws attention to the importance of dialogic engagement and acknowledgment of the role of the embodied researcher as a critical methodological agent in generating research data related to visual practices. This central role of the researcher in visual research foregrounds ethical and epistemological aspects of their positionality. In particular, panelists will discuss the ethical challenges of information studies research that involves Indigenous knowledge communities. This panel will engage the audience in a discussion on the role played by a researcher's positionality in shaping qualitative information research methodologies and will discuss how the generation of visual forms of data and the study of visual information practices pose particular challenges for information studies research.