“presumes a researcher who builds a reciprocal,collaborative, trusting, and friendly relations with the persons he orshe is studying.” (Denzin, 2003, p. xii)

INTRO: While planning my dissertation project, a narrative examinationof the significance of English language and communication in the livesof self-identified queer Japanese, I often considered the difficultiesinherent in being a researcher from the outside looking in. In otherwords, how could I possibly minimize or reduce my own ethnocentric analyses while also accepting the limitations of my own etic perspective?

AIM: To introduce researchers to the ways in which a feminist communitarian approach may aid their research design. Along the way we’ll discuss issues of power, collaboration and socially constructed ideas about research.