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- Convenors:
-
Alana Brekelmans
(University of Queensland Charles Darwin University)
Diana Romano (Deakin University / University of Queensland)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Vitality
- Location:
- WPE Anglesea
- Sessions:
- Friday 25 November, -
Time zone: Australia/Melbourne
Short Abstract:
In this panel we engage with affect and emotion as tools for anthropology. We ask how the discipline can better address trauma in fieldwork, respect empathy as central to ethnographic practice, and represent emotion in ethnography.
Long Abstract:
Researchers' bodies and emotions have long been regarded as central to the construction of ethnographic knowledge. And yet, long after the reflexive turn, ideals of 'ethnography without tears' (Roth 1989) persist, with many ethnographic accounts omitting the emotional experiences of the ethnographer. In many cases, ethnography continues to be imbued with a colonial and patriarchal rationality that rejects the researchers' emotional experiences or demands a 'sink or swim' and 'grin and bear it' approach to difficulties during fieldwork.
This has implications for well-being, recruitment and retention in the profession. Moreover, it overlooks the fundamental role of emotion in anthropological practice. Ethnographic attention to researcher emotions, mistakes, traumas, and vulnerabilities can be crucial in building rapport, illuminating and overcoming prejudices in the researcher's interpretations, and understanding complex social relations, sometimes enabling researchers to explore aspects of social life they would not have otherwise understood.
In this panel we ask, what does it mean to think with emotion in anthropological practice--that is, to do ethnography with tears? What knowledge does this thinking with construct?
We explore how the discipline can better address trauma in fieldwork, respect empathy as central to ethnographic practice, and represent emotion in ethnography. We invite contributions from anthropologists working in applied, academic, and creative research. Our aim is to initiate discussion and reflection on the role of emotion in anthropological work and what this means for anthropologists as subjects, scholars, and activists, as well as for a community of practice and the anthropological project at large.
Discussant: Professor Anna Hickey-Moody (RMIT)
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 25 November, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
During my fieldwork in 2016 in the Philippines, I experienced a distressing event. This experience contributed to my in-depth exploration of the complex social and power relations in my field site - between the local Filipino community and the relatively wealthy lifestyle migrant community.
Paper long abstract:
In 2016 I undertook 12 months of field work on a Philippine island. My field work explored relationships and power dynamics between the Filipino community and the relatively affluent Western expatriate, or lifestyle migrant community on Siargao Island, a popular surf tourism destination in central Philippines. In May, just over four months in, a frightening incident occurred which not only shaped my field work experience but became fundamental to my research during the analysis and writing up stage. While asleep in the wooden house I rented in the village, a local Filipino man who I knew through the local surf scene came banging and yelling at my door. He threw rocks and threatened me with a knife. Many factors were at play here – local/global inequality, the vulnerability of women, illicit drug use (he openly talked of his ‘high’ state) – but forefront in my mind in that moment was my own fear, and later, the trauma surrounding the incident. Reflecting on this moment, however, encouraged me to explore in detail the complex social relations in this context of local/global inequality. The wealthier lifestyle migrant community could be rendered vulnerable at times, and the local Filipino population could express power and agency in different forms (not necessarily violently) despite their relative poverty and limited access to economic capital. This experience shaped my thesis, where I challenge binaries that position one group as subordinate to another, such as colonised/coloniser or poor/wealthy, instead opting for more dynamic understandings of social relations.
Paper short abstract:
The paper explores the impact of fieldwork on an anthropologist by highlighting how fieldwork interactions shape anthropologist’s own understanding of her beliefs and practices.
Paper long abstract:
The paper explores the impact of fieldwork on an anthropologist by highlighting how fieldwork interactions shape anthropologist’s own understanding of her beliefs and practices. The paper draws on my PhD research conducted with Muslim women in New Zealand. Being Muslim myself, I found it challenging to be both a Muslim believer and a critical feminist anthropologist, particularly during heated discussions with research participants. Mostly, my conversations with participants were either too critical or too traditional. As this imbalance progressed, I found that the one being most confused, was me. There were times when I felt that somehow, I was no longer a good Muslim. At other moments, I began to think that I was simply not a good enough anthropologist. Such conflicting situations created self-arguments on being at once a good researcher, and a good Muslim.