Trust is a fundamental component for sustainable relationships between academic and non-academic partners in activist research. That is, scientifically rigorous research committed to human rights and social justice (Hale, 2018). With that in mind, this workshop contributes to debates about trust and the quality of collaborative practices among multisector partners in and out of academia (Bradford and Dutta, 2018; Jeppesen and Sartoretto, 2020; Macduff and Netting, 2000; McGiffin, 2021; Spišák, 2024). In practice, this workshop by the Activist Research Network (ARN) welcomes politically engaged scholars to share their methodological and practical experiences in building trust and sustainable relationships in and through collaboration with activists, civil society practitioners and artists in research and teaching.

We treat this workshop as a respectful and empowering space for sharing experiences, insights and methodological strategies across disciplines and career stages. Some of the guiding questions that we expect presenters to address in this workshop are:

• What does an activist research design that prioritizes the building of trust between scholars, activists, practitioners and/or artists look like?
• How has trust in collaborative processes between researchers, practitioners and/or artists been theorized in academic literature?
• What does “sustainable” in sustainable relationships between researchers, activists, practitioners and/or artists mean in practice?
• What are effective methods for researchers, activists, practitioners and/or artists to build sustainable relationships in and through collaboration?
• What are the challenges to build sustainable collaborative relationships? How to overcome these challenges?
• What are (emotionally, ethically, materially) sustainable ways of doing activism
  or activist research?
• What can go wrong (or has gone wrong) in efforts to build sustainable collaboration in activist research? How to prevent or fix problems in this kind of research?

In this workshop, we want to explore non-traditional forms of knowledge-sharing interactions. In addition to traditional conference presentations, we invite creative explorations in storytelling (e.g. poetry, literary prose, TED-talk-like narratives, recitations, performances, musical and audiovisual resources, etc.) and group activities.

The primary language for this workshop is English. We acknowledge that there is a problem concerning the hegemonic character of the English language in international academic work (Suzina, 2021). However, in the Finnish (and broadly Nordic) context, English still serves as a language that facilitates the interaction of international scholars with local academic communities. Possible contributions in other languages can be considered, if the proponent can provide some form of translation into English, too.

Camilla Marucco Al-Mimar and Leonardo Custódio are coordinators of the Activist Research Network in Finland. For further information, visit https://mailman.abo.fi/mailman/listinfo/activist-research-network

How can a study benefit from participants who are researchers and members of the institution being examined? This presentation discusses the context-responsive methodology of an ongoing project on two-way integration among migrant academics at the University of Oulu. Instead of selecting a single methodological tradition, the project combines participatory, interdisciplinary, semi-ethnographic, and arts-based approaches pragmatically in response to the characteristics of its participants and research setting.

Approximately 12–16 migrant academics across disciplines, national backgrounds, career stages, and institutional positions take part in brainstorming sessions, small focus groups, walking interviews, and reflexive diaries. These activities create a collective semi-ethnographic process for examining everyday encounters, belonging, participation, and institutional practices from multiple perspectives. As researchers, participants contribute experiences alongside concepts, disciplinary insights, methodological reflections, and interpretations. The researcher undertakes initial open coding, after which emerging themes are discussed and refined collaboratively. Depending on their contributions, participants may become co-authors of resulting publications.
Some participants hold responsibilities within the university. Their involvement does not replace dissemination or guarantee institutional change, but it may create direct routes through which emerging knowledge can enter discussions relevant to university practices and decision-making.

A further layer is collaboration between research and visual art. The artist of the project participates in selected stages and develops artistic responses informed by the research and interaction with participants. A science-based art exhibition is intended to bring findings beyond academic audiences. In this reciprocal relationship, artistic practice gains access to research, while research gains different sensory, affective, and publicly accessible forms of communication. The presentation at ETMU will include participatory art involving the audience.

Keywords: Two-way integration; migrant academics; participatory research; interdisciplinary research; researcher–artist collaboration

In Finland, refugees have a strict three-month window after receiving asylum to apply for family reunification without facing prohibitive income requirements. While intended to ease the process, this tight deadline forces highly vulnerable individuals to immediately navigate complex bureaucracy. The process requires a demanding set of skills: interpreting heavy official communication, filling out intricate multi-part forms, managing multiple digital systems, and handling legal translations. Because state-sponsored support is virtually non-existent, grassroots NGOs and activist groups have stepped in to fill the gap.

Our upcoming research project aims to promote equality by investigating these structural challenges, specifically how linguistic accessibility, digital exclusion, and varying counseling practices burden both applicants and their supporters. To do this, we are collaborating with the Free Movement Network, a grassroots activist group that has provided counseling and defended migrant rights for twenty years.

However, this collaboration introduces a profound methodological and ethical puzzle: three out of our four research team members are already active within the Network. While this “insider-outsider” positionality grants us immediate access and deep communal trust, it also raises critical questions that we wish to explore in this workshop:

o How do our dual identities as both activists and researchers reshape or challenge trust within the network?
o How does doing research actively transform our own roles as counselors on the ground?
o What are the ethical risks of blurring the lines between academic critique and grassroots solidarity?

As our project is in its inception phase, we do not bring final answers. Instead, we offer a reflexive look at our research design. We look forward to engaging in an open dialogue about the practical dilemmas, emotional sustainability, and potential pitfalls of doing activist research.