This session will introduce attendees to visual and embodied methodologies (VEM) and how they can be used in social science research. VEM can increase understanding about the social world, enhance participation and collaboration through the arts-based or creative research process, and add meaning and value to the analysis and communication of research data. By learning about VEM participants will learn how these methods can be used to develop original research approaches, work with vulnerable and minoritised groups, and address key social science research challenges. We will explore power dynamics within arts-based research, particularly when working with vulnerable and marginalised groups as well as questions around representation, potential harms and risks and being trauma-informed as researchers.

About the Speakers

Phoebe Martin is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She is a feminist researcher who uses arts-based research methods to understand multiple forms of gender-based violence in Latin America. Her PhD, completed in 2022 at University College London, looked at how feminist activists in Peru use creative interventions around gender violence and reproductive justice. These actions, including art, performance, and audiovisual media create new spaces for social and cultural change in difficult political contexts. Since completing her PhD, she has worked at the University of York and King’s College London, where she researched the memorialisation of sexual violence, and the use of creative methods to research sexual harassment and resistance to gender-based violence. Her work appears in Signs and the Bulletin of Latin American Research. She is co-editor of Decolonising Andean Identities: Andinxs, Activism and Social change (UCL Press) and her monograph Visual and Embodied Politics: Feminist Activism and Art in Peru is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Academic.

Tiffany Fairey is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. Her research concentrates on arts-based peacebuilding with a focus on visual peace research. She leads Imaging Peace, a multi-country study of localised peace photography, as well as being a researcher on Art and Reconciliation and a Research Associate at Everyday Peace Indicators. Co-founder of the award-winning charity PhotoVoice she has 20+ years’ experience as a participatory visual methods and photovoice specialist, pioneering ethical practice and visual methods research design. She has been published widely in academic journals such as Peacebuilding, Visual Studies and International Journal for Transitional Justice and her books include Peace Photography: A Guide (2025) and the forthcoming Imaging Peace (Edinburgh University Press 2025).

 

How to join this event

This is an online event that is free and open for all to attend. Please register via our tickettailor link.