THINC Lab, IF Speaker Series: Digital methodologies of care in social media research – December 3, 2025

Date, Time, and Location

Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. ET. This event was held in person at the THINC Lab on the Second floor of the University of Guelph McLaughlin Library.

On December 3, from 12 to 1 p.m. on the second floor of the University of Guelph McLaughlin Library in the THINC Lab, there will be a 'Digital methodologies of care in social media research' discussion. This next event in the IF...Speakers Series 2025-26 will be an interactive conversation exploring the ethical challenges of using social media platforms to conduct research. Roberta Hawkins and Amy Kipp, of the Live Work Well Research Centre's Reimagining Care cluster, will use a feminist lens and examples from past projects to present feminist ethics of care as an approach to navigating challenges of social media research.

Event Description

Across disciplines researchers are using social media platforms like Instagram, Tiktok, and Facebook to conduct their research. The use of social media in research raises new practical, methodological, and ethical considerations that critical scholars need to pay attention to. Co-leads of the Reimagining Care research cluster, Dr. Roberta Hawkins and Dr. Amy Kipp, facilitated an interactive conversation exploring some of these ethical challenges through a feminist lens.

In their work, Roberta and Amy explore care in digital worlds; feminist ethics of care in academia; and community care and social change. Through sharing examples from past research projects, these researchers introduced feminist care ethics as an approach that can help researchers navigate ethical challenges when conducting social media research, and realize the possibilities of doing research in a more care-filled way.