For me, Patrick Thomsen’s session was a reminder of the value of drawing on personal experience to shape research. Patrick’s ability to embrace his formative experiences and develop them into questions that would come to shape his research and its impact. Our lived experiences provide us with the basis of our understanding of the social world. In this way, Patrick emphasised that there is no knowledge without context, our perception of the social world is mediated by our experiences. In order to research the social world in all its complexities we must first recognise the ways our lived experience has and will continue to influence our understanding of all that is around us.
I was also interested in Patrick’s application of a Pacific Genealogy to his research topic. Framing a particular issue in a knowledge system that is familiar to a researcher would allow, as it did for Patrick, for deeper understanding of the issue being researched, and an ability to personally relay research findings clearly. Though Patrick’s research topic was not based in the Pacific, concepts within Pacific genealogies were still relevant and detailed a perspective which framed the issue in a new way. Patrick’s session encouraged me to consider the potential for framing research in a way which is not necessarily expected but very valuable.
