Paper short abstract:

This paper hauntologically re-evaluates ethics involving ethnographic practices from the perspective of a mixed race queer female filmmaker with physical and mental health challenges. It examines the benefits of how marginalized Othered voices can help towards safeguarding a world in crisis.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will follow my phenomenological experience as a queer mixed race disabled woman creating an auto-ethnographic part-fantasy film during a world health crisis, lockdown and the BLM movement. The paper will focus on three areas. 1: An ethical and radically queered re-evaluation of ethnographic practice from mentally and physically health challenged perspective. 2: How the artist as Other is so used to managing crisis, that their experienced voices are invaluable to a world in crisis, and 3: How hauntological research, social distancing and BLM triggered me to film the actors who played my younger selves on zoom, and also make them co-producers. Hence, they will have an equal and empowered voice in future discussions oh how the film is represented and shared. I examine how adversity urgently queers resistance to enable new discourses. I posit that these new discourses, specifically around race and world consciousness call for a re-evaluation of academia and ethnographic ethical practices that are still entrenched in colonial and patriarchally dominant hierarchal structures. Formerly marginalised voices can be harvested to produce fairly executed ethical guidelines in the future. The artist subject as Other is ironically privileged in working with limited resources to make art accessible, due to their own experiences of inaccessibility. I argue that the ethnographer's only way to be truly ethical is to predict and take full responsibility on behalf of participants for any potential risks of exploitation, particularly when it comes to future third party involvement.

Maria Rosamojo

www.harledencuckoo.com