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Vita06c


Ethnography with tears: exploring the role of researchers' emotions in anthropological practice 
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, -