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Paper short abstract

Grounded in transgender and anarchist theory, this paper discusses video performance as a method to make “queer ways penetrate the ethnographic imagination” (Angela Jones) and foster hermeneutical justice in the field.

Paper long abstract

Over the past few years, many studies have been published on queer and transgender identities, which critiques of dominant paradigms have led the social sciences towards the need for an epistemological shift that calls into question “the orienting assumptions and conceptual frameworks” (Stacey & Thorne 1985, p. 302) underlying the theoretical models and research methods commonly used by ethnographers (Schilt and Lagos, 2017). My paper explores some propositions about what a queer shift could look like using video performance. First, I discuss how any attempt to further consider a queer approach in ethnography calls for non-conventional, experimental data collection and interdisciplinary distribution strategies, leading performance arts to serve as a critical resource. Second, I argue that defining “queer ethnography” and how it can be done in practice requires to address how ethnographic theories inherently produce forms of epistemic violence – especially through the concepts of “destruction” and “failure”, both used by queer and anarchist theorists. Third, I present how I explore such a queer, destruction-informed practice, through a series of performances using analog film, experimental imagery, and video installations where the physical destruction of lens-based technologies dialogue with the deconstruction of epistemic violence. Ultimately, I suggest that video performance can help ethnographers critically address dominant canons in their research, revisit the core concept of embodiment through a queer lens, and help foster hermeneutical justice in the discipline.