Out in the Field: Notes on Researching Queer Violence in Kenya

Abstract

This essay reflects on the ethical, emotional, and methodological complexities of conducting ethnographic research on queerphobic violence in Kenya. Drawing on nine months of fieldwork across urban centres, it argues that research in contexts where queerness is criminalised cannot be adequately understood through institutional ethics alone. Instead, the field is conceptualised as a relational and embodied space shaped by shifting power dynamics, positionality, and emotional labour. Using standpoint theory and queer African epistemological approaches, the essay demonstrates how knowledge is co-produced through ongoing negotiation, care, and accountability. It highlights the researcher’s fluid insider outsider positioning, the limits of procedural ethics, and the emotional toll of engaging with trauma and risk. By centring lived experiences and community practices, the essay contributes to decolonising methodologies, challenging Euro-American research frameworks. Ultimately, it positions fieldwork as a process grounded in reflexivity, solidarity, and a commitment to resisting the conditions that sustain queer violence in Kenya.