Contribution short abstract:

I would like to discuss different roles and ethical issues female researchers encounter in digital and home anthropology

Contribution long abstract:

Drawing from my own research experience I would like to reflect on personal accounts of being a female researcher in Kyrgyzstan. I will bring the issues of positionality, reflexivity and ethics together on two domains: home anthropology and digital ethnography. I have different experiences from being a researcher in these two varying spaces. There is a commonsensical view that studying own community has lots of advantages and a researcher has powerful tools in building trust-based relationships and softening us/them tensions. To what extend is this applicable,? What are the limits and concerns for the female researchers? What is a role of a researcher, is it different in its gendered context and expectations? How different it is if you study "other" communities? How are female researchers perceived in a studied online community? What risks and challenges do they face?

Asking these and other questions I am interested in discussing not only some Kyrgyz gendered norms and restrictions but also look at the insider/outsider perspectives.