Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on access and trust building with participants, gender performances and danger of a female researcher doing ethnography on masculinities in current Athens, Greece.

Paper long abstract:

The current refugee migration has caused much attention from scholars from various fields. Methodological dialogues on the ethical dilemmas, the complication of access and the intersectional power position of the researcher is, therefore of importance in doing research on this diverse group in vulnerable situation.

In this paper I will discuss the complexity of gender performances and the embedded role of the researcher in context to varied locations and transnational patriarchies. As an Icelandic female, I faced this issue while doing ethnographic fieldwork in the centre of Athens in 2012 and 2014-2015, where I observed how young men with refugee background moulded their masculinities across their multiple itineraries. My main field was among anarchists, but I was often in close proximity with smugglers, heavy drug users, weaponized police and anti-immigration groups. Sexual harassment was common and I felt myself seen as the exotic other. Partly for security reasons, I dressed in male clothing instead of female. Sex and gender are thought to be only one of the many fences that ethnographers have to face. Moreover, unpacking/repacking gender is a known practice as the researcher dresses to fit better in a new environment. However, the fluidity of gender subjectivity in recent transgender/sexuality research has brought about criticism on the “true gendered self” of the researcher. Researching gender made me consider the effect of my fluid performances and the ethical considerations of it in the field. My outlook showed surveillance of ascribed gender norms and adoption of those who vary from it.