Getting to know…Bethan Kingsley
As a research associate at WCHRI, Kingsley’s role focuses on supporting high-quality, meaningful, and ethical research in a health context.
Bethan and Archie (Photo: Supplied)
What’s your role at WCHRI?
I work as a research platform to support knowledge translation (KT), qualitative research and engaged research projects. My role also includes the development and implementation of an equity, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) strategy at WCHRI to build more equitable practices both internally, as well as externally.
How does KT positively impact research in a way most researchers don’t consider?
I think the knowledge produced in universities should be as widely accessible as possible, to both democratize it and open it up to challenge (as a primarily Eurocentric domain). Saying this, I think KT always has the potential to have both positive and negative impacts, and we can never fully know the impacts when we say something. So what knowledge is shared, and how, becomes really important, not just that it is shared. And I don’t mean that knowledge needs to be useful in a utilitarian sense, but instead that it contributes to a broader body of knowledge and recognizes its place in this historical context. In this sense, translation becomes about the careful circulation of knowledge that was never ‘ours’ to begin with.
You’ve been helping WCHRI develop its EDI strategy for the last year; why is EDI important?
I think most people have some sense of why EDI initiatives are needed, and more attention is being given to the ways universities create space for some people at the expense of others. The work comes in trying to increase our individual and collective ability to see how inequities operate in our everyday experiences and interactions and make the structural changes necessary for this to be different. Otherwise, EDI can just become another form of window dressing that actually reinstates the status quo.
What’s the best part of your job?
I love how challenging it is. Even though I have a foundation for all the work I am doing, I am also starting from scratch in a lot of ways. This creates a great deal of space for learning, through reading or in conversation with other people, so I feel really lucky to have that in a position.
You were a postdoctoral fellow with the Community-University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth and Families–what was your research focus?
The primary intention of my postdoc was to support the development of the Evaluation Capacity Network, to facilitate ways evaluation can be meaningful in the non-profit sector (for funders, community organizations, etc.). As part of this work, we partnered with community organizations to support different evaluation projects. One of these projects was with Terra Centre and Brentwood Development Group to build and evaluate a model of supportive housing for young families. I also developed evaluation-related learning opportunities through community-based partnerships, such as the EvalLab.
Favourite thing to do in your spare time?
Walks and campfires with friends, preferably with smokies and beer!
Other than the basics, what is one thing you can’t live without?
Animals. They make everything better, especially Zoom meetings!
If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to yourself at 13?
Queer desire is a beautiful thing. Oh, and learn how to set boundaries!
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Wales, where my family lives. I haven’t been back in two and a half years so it is top on the list of places to go.
If you could switch jobs with someone else in WCHRI for a week, who would you choose?
Program Director Tanya Voth! I wouldn’t be able to do her job at all but I’d like to acquire her institutional knowledge for a week!