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- Convenors:
-
Beth Collier
(Independent Scholar)
Frances Roberts-Gregory (Northeastern University)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Thursday 28 October, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel explores the experiences of BIPOC ethnographers conducting research within the conservation field, turning the Anthropological lens on white people and institutions, re-centering narratives about belonging, relationships, power, practice and methodology.
Long Abstract:
Both Anthropology and Conservation have been dominated by a white, colonial framing about who and what is studied or conserved, by which methods and by whom. This panel will explore the lived experience of BIPOC ethnographers whose presence challenges these norms and whose work decolonises through knowledge production and turning the lens on euro-centric conservation systems and spaces. The panel will explore challenges within the research process related to euro-centric fields reacting to the inverted dynamics of BIPOC as observer with the power of the pen and camera. How are we responded to as BIPOC ethnographers within spaces that have traditionally seen us as only being worthy as a subject of study, how are power dynamics expressed by white people and institutions in response to being the subject of research? How do we as BIPOC ethnographers navigate resistance to our power as an observer and analyser – in the field and in the academy? What is the psychological and practical impact of being BIPOC and researching in spaces dominated by a white narrative and how does this affect our ethnography?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 28 October, 2021, -Frances Roberts-Gregory (Northeastern University)
Paper short abstract:
As part methodological intervention and part manifesto, I introduce the ethics, curatives, and praxis of ecowomanist (auto)ethnography (EWAE). EWAE ultimately answers a growing methodological call for feminist abolition ecologies and furthers a long tradition of BIPOC counter-narratives.
Paper long abstract:
Feminist activist scholarship at the intersection of environmental, climate, and energy justice has grown substantially in recent years, particularly amongst a new generation of scholars who embrace interdisciplinary, critical, decolonial, queer, and narrative approaches to environmental science & studies (ESS). Nevertheless, mainstream ESS research only superficially centers embodied and spiritual knowledge, insufficiently critiques Eurocentric and masculinist forms of knowledge production, and rarely investigates methodological approaches for ecological justice developed specifically by and for women of color. Furthermore, very few environmental studies proactively address research fatigue and translation exhaustion within frontline communities, and even fewer studies acknowledge burnout, eco-anxiety, and vicarious traumatization amongst Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) ESS researchers. As part methodological intervention and part manifesto, I introduce the ethics, curatives, and praxis of ecowomanist (auto)ethnography (EWAE). EWAE radically addresses epistemological and ontological omissions commonly found within positivist ESS research as well as shallow methodological engagements with embodiment, affect, spirituality, and subjectivity. EWAE similarly encourages recovery of ecomemories and feminist partial perspective, thus providing analytical tools to reflexively examine environmental (her/their/his)stories and center embodied ecowomanist standpoint(s). I finally focus on EWAE’s potential to facilitate research as healing in opposition to research as emotional violence and epistemic extraction. Feminist activist approaches to environmental research such as EWAE ultimately answer a growing methodological call for feminist abolition ecologies in relation to the ethnographic crisis of representation, and further a long tradition of Black feminism’s minor empiricism, polyvocality, and BIPOC counter-narratives.
Beth Collier (Independent Scholar)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the manifestation of colonial attitudes towards BIPOC presence in environmental spaces in the UK, and the systemic obstacles and challenges impacting black participation and the operation of a black nature institution.
Paper long abstract:
In conducting ethnography into people of colours' relationship with nature, a significant theme emerging within my research, were the more negative responses of white practitioners and organisations to black people in nature which contribute to a feeling that we are unwelcome or do not belong. A colonial legacy still informs dynamics of race within green spaces, of white people as superior custodians and gatekeepers, which impacts the sustainability of, and prompts an existential threat to black individuals and organisations being in the environmental space.
The paper presents an auto-ethnographic account of experiences in the environmental field as a participant observer; as a black naturalist, leading a black focused organisation, whilst conducting ethnographic research. It provides an account of the layers of challenge in participating in the field, how systemic racism manifests and what exclusion looks like, drawing from case studies which elucidate the expressions of those white people who consciously and unconsciously resist black presence in nature.
This paper documents the resistant attitudes of white people within the environmental space towards black people in nature, discussing how these attitudes affect black participation and the impact on the sustainability of black individuals and black organisations' participation in the environmental space.