When we were invited as co-editors of a special issue on performance, we immediately began discussions on a theme that we felt strongly about. The two of us have had numerous collegial discussions while completing our doctorates (at separate institutions), and one topic that kept returning in our conversations was the issue of working responsibly with other people’s stories and experiences. As feminists, we both were sensitive to the implications of speaking on someone else’s behalf. For instance, Linda Alcoff (1991-1992: 6) argues that:
As a type of discursive practice, speaking on behalf of others has come under increasing criticism, and in some communities rejected. There is a strong, albeit contested, current within feminism which holds that speaking for others is arrogant, vain, unethical and politically illegitimate.