Whose Research Is It? Reflection on Participatory Research with Women and Girls with Disabilities in the Global South

Drawing on the Transforming Disability Knowledge, Research, and Activism project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2016-2020), this article critically reflects on the project’s participatory research process that involved young women and girls with disabilities in the Global South. I discuss epistemological and methodological questions related to the deployment of decolonizing research methodologies in the Global South in relation to theoretical and methodological approaches for engaging girls with disabilities. I argue that a critical, reflexive, and decolonizing research approach that embodies knowledge from the Global South is essential for empowering these girls to express themselves through multiple forms of representation.