Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores the collective experiences of outsiders/insider researchers who balanced their well-being, ethics, curiosity and religious beliefs to negotiate access in the field while being considered ritually impure. Expanding an initial sample of six researchers involved in the BA-funded 'Dignity without Danger' project, the authors contacted over 60 female researchers who worked in Nepal over the past 50 years. Their anonymous contributions enable us to report on a wealth of experiences. The result is an account of female solidarity, working through pain and experiencing (dis)trust and discrimination. The choice of conforming or ignoring communal rules, of starting to believe or (not)disclosing one's status, of deciding to leave or lie creates a complex system of negotiating one's presence in the field as a menstruating researcher.