GenCen Leads Collaborative Training on Research Ethics at Sappho For Equality, Kolkata

Sappho for Equality is a registered organization in Kolkata, India, working for social justice and the rights of individuals with non-normative gender/sexual orientations, identities, and expressions. 

Sappho has members from all walks of life, and many are engaged in research and other academic pursuits. In our ongoing conversations with Sappho leaders, we also learned that their members are often the subjects of research studies. Researchers, including high numbers coming from U.S. institutions, frequently drop by Sappho's Porshi café to seek study participants. While these interactions are sometimes interesting and rewarding for Sappho members, we also heard about more troubling encounters. Thus, research ethics is a topic close to Sappho's heart. 

GenCen and Sappho decided to hold a collaborative training workshop to discuss international research ethics standards and structures, including the university Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) that must approve and oversee all research with human participants.  

During the lively 2-hour session, GenCen Co-Directors, Soma Chaudhuri and Aminda Smith discussed both the rights study participants have and the limits of current IRB standards. Sappho members shared their experiences and raised significant issues that a truly ethical code of research conduct would need to address. GenCen and Sappho committed to working together to draft a research ethics document for Sappho to share with prospective researchers and which might serve as a model for other organizations. In this collaboration, Sappho will bring their decades of experience as researchers and grassroots community activists and GenCen will draw on our own experience and the experience of other MSU units in developing social justice-based approaches to ethical research and community engagement.