
David Borish
As his body of work illustrates, David is an exceptional storyteller and researcher, able to communicate the complexities of environmental and social issues to a variety of audiences. Through his leadership, the HERD: Inuit Voices on Caribou study was able to document over 80 perspectives about caribou across Labrador, analyse this knowledge through both a qualitative and multimedia approach, and engage community members in an equitable and transparent research process that centred community voices. A variety of outputs, including a feature and short-length documentary film, an interactive website, and a photobook were produced. Six peer-reviewed articles that advance knowledge about caribou and Inuit identity, social connections, food security, emotional wellbeing, cultural continuity, and other dimensions of Inuit life were also co-created.
David is a clear leader in using visual strategies to explore and communicate underrepresented knowledges and lived experiences, and his unique position as a social and health researcher and a filmmaker has helped him advance video for collaborative inquiry.
David’s recent article for the International Journal of Qualitative Methods grounds documentary film in community-based and Indigenous-led research, while also outlining the practical influence of film for supporting project collaboration with Indigenous Peoples, the strength of conducting filmed interviews for place-based understandings, and a co-analysis approach that emphasizes the embodied dimensions of Indigenous knowledge.
David has also developed and piloted a new highly transferable analytical strategy he calls video-based qualitative analysis. This new analytical technique repurposes video-editing software for investigating qualitative data, which helps to integrate the non-text dimensions of knowledge into the analysis, such as body language, gaze, and tone of voice.
David’s short but powerful trajectory is coherent and committed to advancing the use of creative, visual methodologies for understanding social, health, and environmental issues.