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Paper Short Abstract:

Based on auto-ethnography and interviews with ethnographers working in northern regions of Canada, this paper analyzes the process of filing complaints in response to gendered sexual violence experienced in ethnographic research contexts.

Paper Abstract:

In her recent work, Sara Ahmed (2021) shows how complaints processes illuminate structures of power in academic institutions. Based on auto-ethnography and interviews with ethnographers working in northern regions of Canada, this paper analyzes the process of filing complaints or taking legal action in response to gendered sexual violence in both academic and independent research contexts. Examining case studies of responses to gendered sexual violence experienced during ethnographic research, I compare how complaints travel through these two research contexts to illuminate the structural conditions that allow violence to propagate.

This paper shows how the northern Canadian fieldsites in which participants work, often characterized by remoteness and masculinist extractive industries, play a role in how gendered violence is experienced and navigated in its aftermath. Queer, Indigenous, and gender diverse researchers create unique networks of support in which to conduct their research successfully, often requiring unexpected divergences from what could be considered conventional method, ethics, and professional outputs. While the structures of academic and non-academic institutions differ, academic training upholds informal narratives about expected hardships of research that put researchers at risk in both contexts. The opportunities for recourse available for ethnographers who experience violence are also limited in both institutions. I conclude with reflections on the potential for structural change and improved training for graduate students. Gendered challenges faced by ethnographers cannot be resolved by “leaning in” (Sandberg 2013) to a male-dominated field, but rather by crafting a decolonial ethnographic practice in which to safely conduct research beyond that very structure.