Paper short abstract:

Through a study with German nationals of Asian and African origin, the research aims to understand social categories (e.g. nationality, gender) as embodied experiences in the context of travel. Methods are walking interviews, the production of essays by participants and observations during travels.

Paper long abstract:

My research explores the relation between travel and self-identity. Drawing from ethnographic data collected through a phenomenological approach of young German nationals of Asian and African origin, the research aims to understand how social categories such as nationality, ethnicity or gender are experienced, embodied, performed, negotiated, contested, transformed and reproduced in the context of travel. How is living in or belonging or being associated with/to nations, to a certain gender and to other social categories such as ethnicity reflected, embodied, performed and contested in travel practices and experiences? I follow the idea of Sara Ahmet (2004) that "lived emotions […] are part of larger material and discursive structures of the nation-state" and stress the importance of the body as the field where limits and possibilities for the subject are negotiated. What is a person thinking and feeling when wandering through unfamiliar streets? What feelings, what reflections are triggered by travelling and the encounter in travel and how do these experiences matter after travel? In order to document the narrativity of bodily practices, the methodology is based on (a) walking interviews in which I particularly focus on the description of emotions and feelings during and after travelling, (b) on production of essays and travel journals by participants (e.g. photo elicitation) and (c) participant observation of participants during their travels. By using these techniques I aim at highlighting the interplay of emotions, feelings and rational reasoning on self-identity that accompanies the subject during and after her/his travels.