Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to shed light on the complexities of doing fieldwork for Black researchers conducting research among predominantly Black communities. It explores how Black researchers navigate their positionality as both outsiders and insiders.

Paper long abstract:

The growing share of early-career researchers from diverse backgrounds poses a new set of challenges for anthropological fieldwork, especially considering that the scholarship on anthropological fieldwork has traditionally considered the researcher as a neutral subject. While there is a school of thought which values researchers who aren’t from the community they study because they are seen as neutral, detached observers (Kerstetter, 2012), one can argue that outsider researchers will never truly understand a culture or a situation they have never experienced and thus cannot relate to. On the other hand, insider researchers i.e. researchers who share an identity with the group they are studying, can better understand their experiences but it could also be harder for them to separate their personal experiences from those of their research participants. This paper aims to shed light on the complexities of doing fieldwork for Black researchers conducting research among predominantly Black communities. It explores how Black researchers navigate their positionality as both outsiders given their social status being part of academia and insiders due to their shared identity with their research participants. The paper will illustrate how this positionality is much more complex than a simple insider/outsider dichotomy. It argues that with the right tools and support, Black researchers’ complex positionality can help us reimagine anthropological fieldwork at a time when it is being contested.