Ethics Before Methods

Ethics Before Methods

In work that engages lived experience, ethics are not an add-on. They are the structure that determines whether inquiry clarifies or harms.

I recently completed formal training in human research ethics, grounding my work more explicitly in proportionality, consent, and institutional responsibility. What this training reinforces is something I’ve long observed in practice: harm rarely arises from malice, but from systems that fail to adapt when predictable human vulnerabilities meet rigid processes.

Ethical inquiry is not about accumulating approvals or multiplying oversight. It is about designing engagement that respects agency, limits extraction, and remains attentive to how structure shapes outcomes. This includes knowing when not to collect, when to pause, and when abstraction is more responsible than narrative.

As this work continues—across practice-based inquiry, systems analysis, and graduate study—ethics remain foundational. Not as a constraint on thinking, but as the condition that allows inquiry to remain legitimate, humane, and accountable.

This post marks the completion of foundational training in human research ethics and reflects its integration into ongoing interdisciplinary work.