BISEXUAL+ LEADERS IN CANADA
Call for Research Participants
Study conducted by Taralyn Parr, Ph.D. Candidate
Reviewed and approved by the University of Toronto Research and Ethics Board
ABOUT ME
My name is Taralyn Parr, and I am a Ph.D. candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, completing my dissertation research under the supervision of Dr. Kiran Mirchandani.
My passion for my research is fueled by my lived experiences as a member of the bisexual+ community and has prompted me to question how bisexual+ people navigate their sexual identity and leadership performances at work.
MY RESEARCH STUDY
Bisexuals are the largest group within the LGBTQ community, more than gay and lesbian people combined and younger generations like millennials and Gen Z are increasingly identifying with non-binary sexual identities under the bisexual+ umbrella. Despite the size and growth of the community, bisexual+ people are frequently invisible and erased, particularly as leaders in the workplace in Canada.
Prevailing notions about leaders and leadership continue to be dominated by normative ideas about gender and sexual identity, as well race, ethnicity, class, disability, and age. I am interested in exploring how bisexual+ people navigate their sexual identity, alongside other important aspects of their self, and their performance of leadership.
The nature and purpose of my research is twofold: to better understand the ways bisexual+ people disclose their sexual identity in the workplace and the impacts that disclosure and sexual identity may have on their leadership performances.
54.5%
of the LGBTQ2S+ communities identifies as bisexual+
24.5%
of the bisexual+ community are millennials are GenZ'ers
24.5%
bisexual+ wage gap as compared to straight men in Canada
Statistics retrieved from a 2021 Gallup poll conducted in the US and a Canadian research study conducted by Waite et al. (2020), "Lesbian, gay and bisexual earnings in the Canadian labor market"
MY RESEARCH APPROACH
My research takes an anti-narrative approach, which means that I consider our personal narratives not as absolute fact or objective stories, but rather ways that we account for and constitute ourselves.
Together, we will co-create a space where we can reflect on, expose, deconstruct, and disentangle the norms that might underlie or shape our leadership performances and explore the ways in which our leadership performances might constrain, normalize, or validate aspects of our sexual identity. We will also consider the embodied aspects of our leadership performances, including the types of labour that might be entailed, our experiences performing this labour, and the possible implications of not being able or willing to perform this labour.
PARTICIPATION CRITERIA
I am looking to interview people who:
Identify as bisexual+, including but not limited to those who identify as bisexual, Two-Spirit, pansexual, queer, fluid, polysexual, plurisexual, non-monosexual and/or omnisexual
Are ‘out’ at work
Hold a manager, senior manager, director, senior director title, or equivalent
Work in a professional organization, including but not limited to accounting, advertising, baking and finance, consulting, communications, engineering, legal, marketing, and public relations; and
Consider themselves or identify as a leader within their organization.
THE RESEARCH
PROCESS
If you volunteer to participate, we will schedule a 90-minute Zoom interview during which we will engage in a drawing exercise and explore of a photo of you that you will bring to the interview. The interview will be conversational and interactional in nature. Your drawing and photo will guide and inspire our discussion and ultimately you and your reflections, thoughts, emotions, and experiences will lead the direction of our conversation.
CONFIDENTIALITY
AND PRIVACY
Protecting your confidentiality and privacy is of the utmost importance to me. Pseudonyms will be used in all project documents to ensure you or any organizations discussed will not be recognizable. All interview audio, video, transcription, and project related data and documents will be stored on an encrypted secure server and securely deleted either upon project completion of within five years of the research project completion.
RISKS AND BENEFITS
Together we will be reflecting on events, interactions, and ideas; questioning our thoughts, assumptions, actions and decisions; and exposing, questioning, and dismantling gender, hetero, and mononormative ideas and structures. For some of us, this may bring up painful events or experiences. Please know that I will take reasonable and appropriate precautions to reduce any potential harm to you!
This process may also enable a better, or different, perspective on or understanding of past events, interactions, or experiences, why and how things happened the way they did. You may find this process to be transformative or liberating, as we will be challenging and disrupting norms and processes and co-creating a space to consider alternative ways to do, think, and talk about leadership.
By participating in this study, you will also be contributing to important and necessary research that centers bisexual+ peoples voices and experiences in the workplace and seeks to make concepts of leadership and organizations more expansive and inclusive.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
Your participation is completely voluntary and you may withdrawal your consent at any point throughout the data collection process. If you have any concerns about the research, you may contact me directly or my supervisor, Dr. Kiran Mirchandani.
Thank you in advance for your consideration. If you would like to participate in my research study, please click below to complete the consent form and volunteer demographic survey or contact me below!
CONTACT ME
By completing this form, you consent to the researcher contacting you via e-mail.