Paper Short Abstract:

Taking as a starting point my own positionality as a Polish researcher doing fieldwork among Brazilians of Polish origin, and a mother who combines fieldwork with care work, I explore the consequences of my family’s presence in the field, and the ways it shaped our ethnographic encounters.

Paper Abstract:

In this presentation, I explore my positionality and survival strategies both in academia and patriarchal society by examining the implications of researching the Global South from a post-communist, semi-peripheral country, and simultaneously navigating (not)going beyond my own nation in the context of diaspora research. I begin with the feminist call for the (re)presentation of diverse voices, emphasizing the significance of the researcher’s bodily experience. I focus on merging the roles of mother and anthropologist and how these intersections affect ethnographic encounters and influence their understanding, as well as the further processes of analysis and writing.

My analysis is based on my ethnographic research, conducted from 2019 to 2021 on the locally defined heritage and sense of belonging among descendants of Polish migrants in southern Brazil. My family (husband and sons) accompanied me for most of the time in the field, a rural and patriarchal village predominantly inhabited by descendants of Poles. Although I did not specifically research child-rearing and culturally constructed motherhood, these topics frequently emerged in conversations, allowing me to scrutinize them. I also formed strong, close relationships with my research participants, who were also parents. My primary question was: how did being in the field with my family affect my research? How did my sons’ presence, race, spoken language, ways of playing, and food choices shape our encounters and my research partners’ perceptions of what it means to be Polish? Clearly, all multidimensional elements of my positionality played various roles throughout the research process and in its aftermath.