Episode 4 – Positionality and Research Across Different Cultural Contexts with Dr Diane Levine
Nobody comes into research as a neutral observer, whether they’re interviewing young people in Johannesburg or looking down a microscope in Leicester.
In the fourth episode of Difficult Conversations, Dr Kike Ladipo and Dr Gez Williams talk to Dr Diane Levine, whose research looks at how children and young people survive and thrive amid adversity, much of it with communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Diane explains what positionality means and why acknowledging who you are is only the start: the real work is changing how you do research because of it. She talks about why it matters just as much in STEM, from AI training data to clinical trials, how working with a colleague who became a traditional healer during her PhD changed the way she understood mental health, and why being an insider in a community isn’t automatically better.
Her advice for researchers starting cross-cultural work is to be curious, be humble, listen for longer than feels comfortable, and when you make mistakes, own them and fix them. If you’ve ever wondered how your own background shapes the questions you ask, this conversation is a good place to start.
Listen to the episode
About our guest
Diane Levine is based in the School of Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leicester and is a Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Social Development in Africa, University of Johannesburg. Her research examines how children, adolescents and emerging adults survive and thrive amid adversity, including digital challenges and maltreatment. Taking a multisystemic, Afrikan-centred approach, she explores multisystemic resilience through relationships, communities, environments and institutions to inform social change.
Useful links and resources
- Centre for Social Development in Africa, University of Johannesburg
- On Repentance and Repair by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
- Rethinking Africa: Indigenous Women Re-interpret Southern Africa’s Pasts, edited by June Bam and others
- The Foreign Gaze: Essays on Global Health by Seye Abimbola (open access)
- Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta
- Ukugula Kwabantu: Dr Sinethemba Makanya’s research on traditional healers and mental health
- I-REACCH: Inclusive Research Environment Achieved through Culture Change
Timecodes
- 00:00 Welcome to Difficult Conversations
- 00:38 Introducing Dr Diane Levine
- 01:35 What is positionality, and why does it matter?
- 02:37 Why positionality can be a difficult conversation
- 04:06 How a researcher’s identity shapes their research
- 07:48 Why positionality matters in STEM too
- 09:44 The challenges of research across cultural contexts
- 12:35 Navigating insider and outsider dynamics
- 15:30 What is reflexivity, and what role does it play?
- 16:52 Building trust, and advice for researchers new to cross-cultural work
- 21:05 How to start a conversation about positionality
- 23:02 What gives Diane hope
- 25:39 Closing reflections from Kike
- 27:42 Credits
Difficult Conversations is hosted by Dr Kike Ladipo and Dr Gez Williams, and produced by Chaos Created for I-REACCH, a Wellcome-funded project at the University of Leicester.
Content note: this episode includes a reference to the recent death of Professor Jason Arday.
