CITATION POLITICS

Citation politics is about reproducing sameness.
If we are always citing white, male authors, we are forever drawing from a very limited set of experiences.

Women are cited less on average than research authored by men, but if a woman co-authors with a man, the paper has a higher chance of being cited.

People of color and other marginalized folx are less cited than their white colleagues even if they have more experience and authority than white researchers.

Well cited scholars have authority because they are well cited. But well cited does not mean quality especially at the expense of those less cited.

positionality: Text

positionality: Activities

POSITIONALITY MATTERS

What and who you chose to cite is a reflection of your positionalities.*

You come to research as you and bring with you your experiences, opinions, access to information, specific skill sets, etc.

These positionalities* effect who you include in your research and who you exclude. Who YOU consider an authority on the subject matters.

Citation selecting is not passive. We make a conscious decision who to include and who to exclude in our research.

We need to discuss our intentions and why we chose to cite certain resources over others. It holds us accountable for the research we do and the creations we produce.

*'Positionality is the notion that personal values, views, and location in time and space influence how one understands the world. In this context, gender, race, class, and other aspects of identities are indicators of social and spatial positions and are not fixed, given qualities. Positions act on the knowledge a person has about things, both material and abstract. - Encyclopedia of Geography (p2258)