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Paper short abstract:

Based on a yearlong ethnography this paper argues that art-based participatory methods (auto-photography) and visual workshops (fashion shoots and 'dream boards') carve space for marginalised interlocutors to shape research and create intimacy and trust between the researcher and their participants.

Paper long abstract:

Based on a yearlong ethnography, conducted in Rwanda in 2019, this paper argues that art-based participatory methods and visual workshops carve space for marginalised interlocutors to shape research and create intimacy between the researcher and their participants. In my study of Rwandan female and trans sex workers’ cosmopolitan practises and livelihoods, I discovered that the post-genocide society (silence, trauma, lack of trust) and the stigma associated with sex work (illegality) proved interviewing and participant observation fruitless at times. Furthermore, an Ebola outbreak reduced certain interactions and thus forced me to implement novel ways of continuing my research. By providing disposable cameras to the sex workers I conducted photo-elicited narratives. Together with a local artist, I organised a fashion photo shoot, which helped me to understand my interlocutors’ aesthetic inspirations and performances. Finally, I organised a visual workshop, where my interlocutors built collages of images (‘dream boards’) to represent their future dreams and desires. Together these participatory methods brought out new components to the study and visually exemplified the lived realities of the sex workers through their own eyes. Moreover, these interactions created trust and intimacy between myself and my interlocutors; from the practicalities of teaching how to use material means, to us discovering the visual results together. For the future of social research in Africa to be more inclusive, feminist and anti-colonial, it can benefit from art-based participatory methods - as they can be useful in the (post) pandemic world with its limitations to mobility.