A global community of practice

Reimagining research ethics through feminist, decolonial, and participatory approaches.

We are a global community working to transform how research ethics are understood and practiced, with a particular focus on research in and emerging from the Global South.

The Feminist Ethics Collaborative mark: four women around a set of scales

Who we are

A network that bridges academic, community, philanthropic, and institutional spaces.

Our network includes community practitioners, researchers, professors, activists, consultants, Ph.D. students, and active IRB/ERC members. The Collaborative creates space to challenge dominant assumptions, share knowledge, and advance more just, relational, and context-responsive approaches to research ethics.

Meet our people

What we do

We work on the tensions between feminist research and conventional ethics review.

We examine and address the structural tensions between feminist research practices — particularly in the Global South — and conventional, positivist review mechanisms like Institutional Review Boards and Ethics Review Committees.

01

Within systems

We support reform of ethics review processes so that reviewers can assess feminist, participatory, and decolonial research on its own terms.

02

Beyond systems

We advance new models of ethical research grounded in feminist, participatory, and decolonial practice, rather than imported institutional templates.

03

Adolescents & children

We are especially interested in ethics tensions emerging from research involving adolescents and children, because these often trigger full research ethics review.

Our scale and reach

60+

Members

20+

Countries

Our shared values

Five commitments to which we hold each other.

All five values

Intersectional feminisms

We center gendered power analysis, intersectionality, and community agency as essential to ethical research.

Epistemic justice

We challenge colonial, patriarchal, and positivist hierarchies that determine whose knowledge is considered valid, objective, or scientific.

Accountability

We are accountable to the people and communities affected by research, not only to institutions, funders, or review bodies.

Join us

Participate according to your interests, expertise, and capacity.

We welcome researchers, community practitioners, academics, activists, ethics review board members, doctoral students, funders, and others who share our commitment.

Interested in joining?