Collective vulnerability between the researcher and the researched: a reflection on researcher positionality and ‘safety’ in the study of Islamophobia in economic Muslim migrants

This paper reflects on collective vulnerability shared between the researcher and the researched, specifically in relation to studying the impact of Islamophobia in South Asian Muslim women in Britain. I reflect on my PhD study, and explore the tensions within the research space vis-à-vis researcher positionality. Puwar’s ‘Space Invaders’ is employed to explore the possibilities of disrupting power within research. This paper, therefore, reflects on the role of ‘collective vulnerability’ as a key to creating and maintaining a ‘safe’/ ‘counterspace’ to dislodge the trappings of employing a vertical gaze on data.