Researching parental leave during a pandemic : Lessons from black feminist theory and relationality

In this Open Space piece, my aim is to meditate on the current moment, to draw connections between relationality and black feminist theory and to harness the strategies and tools they might offer; a praxis for living and being in the world as well as changing it. In particular, I will use my project, an intersectional examination of parental leave in the UK, as a lens through which to discover what intellectual and methodological possibilities a relational approach might offer, especially as I carry out research in a post-COVID-19 world, a world in which black lives appear to matter.