On grief and other hard things: A visit with the (environmental) humanities
As part of my sabbatical, I recently spent two weeks with the exceptional researchers in Environmental Humanities at UNSW. My hope was to encounter ideas that would inspire…
Tag: Fieldnotes
Anthro Blogging 101: Allegra Lab
In this edition of Anthropology Blogging 101, we welcome Miia Halme-Tuomisaari and Julie Billaud, Editors in Chief at Allegra Lab. Tell us a little about Allegra Lab. How did it…
NZ animal welfare & public consultation
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) regulates animal welfare in NZ, and it currently has two proposals out for public consultation. Interested parties have until Thursday 19 May…
‘Every Day is a Copy-And-Paste’: Waithood Among Tunisian Men
This morning I felt that I couldn’t bear this passivity any longer. I was sinking in my red plastic chair without anything to do. In those moments, when…
The Diner
“Aunt K. used to be happy when she was young. Now, she’s angry.” Aunt K.’s doll avatar, as imagined by a three-year-old.. My head snaps to the side,…
REDUX: Scenes of #Gentrification
Scene One: London Soho and Bloomsbury I used to love London for its Indian and Thai vegan restaurants, vibrant queer cafes, independent bookstores, second hand antiquaries, esoteric health…
Status Check
I’ve been quiet the last few months. Let me explain. First, I’ve been writing/thinking/crafting my dissertation. It examines family experiences with undiagnosed children, particularly thos…
REDUX: Boredom and the “Life Unlived” – Sapiens-Allegra Writing Competition!
Most of our devoted Allies will remember that we started this year with a bang, aka by launching the SAPIENS-Allegra writing competition to discover new public anthropologists. For…
Making Sense of Violence Against Minority Women: Notes on Skepticism, Discomfort & Privilege in #Fieldwork
What is it like to do fieldwork within a marginalized social group? Especially when you – the researcher – hail from the dominant community? How do you deal…
Fieldnotes: Stop motion farming
One of the things I planned for my sabbatical is learning how to make stop motion videos for research dissemination / public engagement. I’ve never done it before,…
Fieldnotes: “I am a fieldnote”
It’s hard to explain to others how we do something. Anything. But it’s especially difficult to do it when much of what happens takes place in our own…
Fieldnotes: Week 2
I’ve been on research and study leave for two weeks now. This is what’s happened and what I’ve learned so far. TVNZ Sunday broadcast an expose on animal…
Fieldnotes: T minus 41 hours
My sabbatical officially starts in 41 hours so I thought I’d round up a few things that are on my mind… I first learnt of Robin Wall Kimmerer‘s…
Truthtelling
At some point this year, my dissertation shifted from a (largely unwritten) traditional ethnography to an intentional experiment on writing/thinking/doing disability as a scholar. This was a change…
Life After #Fieldwork: of leaving the field, entering liminality and relocating the mind #fieldnotes
The bulky and weirdly shaped package I hold in my hands weighs nearly 20 pounds. 20 pounds of memories materialize in a final leaving present that now makes…
Universit(ar)y journeys: an ethnographic play
Last year Mick Taussig gave a short course to doctoral students at the University of Helsinki on the relation between research and writing. Ethnography, he repeated several times…
Contextualizing Exclusion: Lessons from Kambis
In my first blog installment I described one of my bus rides in Tehran in order to show that education, the transmission and acquisition of knowledge and sensibilities, is…
Journeys Within and Between the City, Part Two
In the field, anthropologists are often presented with competing narratives, imaginings juxtaposed with reality, and the collision of facts with opinions and perceptions. The narratives of research pa…
All good things come to an end – or do they? #Fieldnotes
What do you know: the summer is already gone! It feels like it was only a moment ago when we solicited contributions to our fieldwork thread, and now…
Ethnographic Field Data 2: When Not-Sharing is Caring
In my last post, I recommended that we consider archiving and sharing records from our fieldwork. Yet sharing both raw notes and publications can present challenges, as Rex recently covered with…
Dis-orientalizing & Ethnographic Journeys #Fieldnotes
I conduct fieldwork among young Hindus in Amsterdam, the city where I have lived for nearly six years. Amsterdam lends itself to compartmentalisation as it is neatly divided…
Shoes, walking and reflections on subtle conflicts within social movements #Fieldnotes
In my research, I have found myself walking constantly, primarily because the city where my field site is set breathes with mobilizations these days. Choice of shoes has…
Buses, Metros, Shoes & Confusing Journeys #Fieldnotes
This week we continue our thread on fieldnotes via four posts that all in their own way elaborate this thread’s overarching theme: journey. As is familiar to all…
Poignant Pasts and Uncertain Futures in the Greek Crisis: Ethnographic Snippets from ATM Queues
July 2nd 2015, it is 4.30pm and the temperature is touching 40’c. I am standing in a queue of some twenty-five people outside Ethniki Bank in central Trikala,…