Contribution short abstract:

Embracing lostness as an anthropologist is a way of wandering through fieldwork spaces, of surrendering to discomfort and unknowns - I have for a long time embraced being lost as a form of discovery, of encounter, of delay and surrender-hence my interest in this novel, exciting workshop !

Contribution long abstract:

‘How to disappear completely’: Embracing lostness

Fiona Murphy, Dublin City University

Themes of loss, ‘lostness,’ distance and recovery have animated my anthropological work with Indigenous Australians forcibly removed from their families (Stolen Generations) and people seeking refuge for as long as I have worked as an anthropologist. In considering lostness through the lens of traumatic experience, I have come to understand its expansiveness as a way of inhabiting lifeworlds anchored in uncertainty. Lostness also echoes through my professional relationship with anthropology and my personal life in multi-layered and often conflicting ways. Embracing lostness as an anthropologist is also a way of wandering through complicated fieldwork spaces, of surrendering to discomfort and unknowns in a way that can be generative and meaningful. In my everyday wanderings, as a person who struggles completely with map reading, I have become reliant on my smart phone (and even then I struggle), so I have for a long time embraced being lost as a form of discovery, of encounter, of delay and surrender-hence my interest in this novel, exciting workshop !