Short Abstract:

This roundtable explores what it means to conduct research anthropologically during COVID-19, with an emphasis on graduate student dissertation research. In addition, this roundtable considers the potentially enduring implications of COVID-19 for a post-pandemic anthropology.

Long Abstract:

Flexibility is a hallmark of anthropological fieldwork. Stories of anthropologists adapting to surprises in the field, pursuing emergent lines of inquiry, and struggling with uncertainties and even failures in fieldwork (Stevenson 2014) shape the mythology and ethos of our discipline (e.g. Boas’s inductive approach; participation observation as the product of Malinowski’s political exile). The current COVID-19 pandemic, however, pushes the bounds of flexibility in anthropological fieldwork. Travel restrictions and social distancing do not only require researchers to adapt in the field; in most cases, they have rendered the “field,” at least in the traditional sense, off-limits. What does it mean to conduct anthropological research in the context of COVID-19?

In this roundtable, we explore ways of conducting anthropological research amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, we discuss the impact of COVID-19 on graduate students’ dissertation research and reflect on what it means to be an anthropologist when in-person fieldwork—long-touted a professional rite of passage (Robben and Sluka 2012)—is not feasible. We identify ethical and methodological challenges, as well as discuss how pandemic-induced research constraints have generated new opportunities and connections in our work. At the same time, we wrestle with how to engage our research anthropologically yet remotely, which often feels like a contradiction. We also look toward the future to consider the potentially enduring implications of COVID-19 for a post-pandemic anthropology.