Paper Short Abstract:

As a disabled anthropologist immersed in a different culture, my unpredictable body and rhythm disrupt conventional able-bodied ideas of what ethnography traditionally looks like. In the paper, I explore how behind the scenes of centering the narratives of reproductive aspirations, autonomy, and control of my interlocutors - Spanish women with intellectual disability - relationships built on shared vulnerability transformed the traditional process of engagement. My auditory and speech processing challenges destabilised traditional power dynamics, creating moments where interlocutors—many of whom also experience speech difficulties—assisted me in finding words. These interactions produced a dynamic of mutual care and interdependence, reframing disability not as a limitation but as a source of methodological insight. Such embodied encounters challenge ideas of ethnographic authority, researcher neutrality, and "normative" fieldwork practices. My "out-of-place" body underscores how positionality—marked by disability, gender, and intersecting identities—shapes knowledge production and field relationships. By unwriting ableist assumptions within ethnography, we move toward a more inclusive and reflexive discipline—one that values intersubjectivity, embodied difference, and collaborative ways of knowing.

Paper Abstract:

Anthropologists are taught early on that our bodies are key tools for fieldwork—often framed as capable of withstanding culture shock, long hours, and the rigors of academic engagement. Yet this framing privileges an able-bodied ideal, leaving little room for bodies and rhythms that do not conform. As a foreign, disabled anthropologist with an unpredictable body and rhythm, my presence in the lives of my interlocutors—intellectually disabled women in Spain—disrupted conventional researcher-subject hierarchies and revealed new possibilities for embodied ethnographic practice.

My interlocutors' stories, lives, and aspirations for autonomy and reproductive futures are often mediated by others, sometimes through coercion and violence. In this paper, I center their narratives while exploring the transformative relationships we built on shared vulnerability and intersubjectivity. My auditory and speech processing challenges destabilized traditional power dynamics, creating moments where interlocutors—many of whom also experience speech difficulties—assisted me in finding words. These interactions produced a dynamic of mutual care and interdependence, reframing disability not as a limitation but as a source of methodological insight. Such embodied encounters challenge ideas of ethnographic authority, researcher neutrality, and "normative" fieldwork practices.

My "out-of-place" body underscores how positionality—marked by disability, gender, and intersecting identities—shapes knowledge production and field relationships. By unwriting ableist assumptions within ethnography, we move toward a more inclusive and reflexive discipline—one that values intersubjectivity, embodied difference, and collaborative ways of knowing.