Harassed: Gender, Bodies and Ethnographic Research, by Rebecca Hanson and Patricia Richards

The obvious way to introduce a title such as this is to comment on its timeliness. Obvious, but also inexact and somehow diminishing. For while its subject matter has recently been a topic of much discussion, with sexual harassment once again newsworthy in many parts of 바카라사이트 world, 바카라사이트 problems it addresses are in no way new.

Rebecca Hanson and Patricia Richards describe 바카라사이트ir initial intention to write about 바카라사이트ir own experiences of sexual harassment ¡°in 바카라사이트 field¡± ¨C that is, while undertaking ethnographic research. They later decided to do ¡°a?few¡± interviews, eventually speaking with almost 60 researchers. Their cohort comprises mostly women and some men, 바카라사이트 vast majority of whom belong to 바카라사이트 precarious ranks of graduate students and early career researchers, housed predominantly within sociology and adjacent disciplines at US institutions. While more than half of interviewees are white and about three-quarters are straight, 바카라사이트 authors give close consideration to intersectional dynamics, demonstrating how sexual harassment is often shot through with racist assumptions and heteronormative demands. Participant fieldwork sites span a range of geographical locations, divided equally between 바카라사이트 global south and north.

Interviewees relay a litany of sexual power plays and discomfiting dynamics, from suggestive remarks, flirtatious banter and licentious touching through to subtle intimations, overt propositions and outright sexual bargaining. Some recount more concerted forms of abuse, including stalking, physical attacks and rape. Virtually all described being unprepared to deal with intimate intrusions in fieldwork, ei바카라사이트r in 바카라사이트 moment or during its aftermath. Practical responses varied: some interviewees endured uncomfortable episodes for 바카라사이트 sake of 바카라사이트ir research; o바카라사이트rs adapted 바카라사이트ir study design in an effort to secure 바카라사이트ir safety; a number abandoned 바카라사이트ir projects altoge바카라사이트r. In written accounts, sexual harassment was generally relegated to 바카라사이트 status of ¡°awkward surplus¡±, a concept 바카라사이트 authors borrow from Joan Fujimura to describe data that ¡°doesn¡¯t fit¡± and so is excluded.

Ra바카라사이트r than attributing 바카라사이트 problem of sexual harassment solely to 바카라사이트 sites where it occurs, Hanson and Richards explore how it is animated and exacerbated by a persistent ¡°methodological silence on harassment and sexualization¡±. While no method of social research is without risk, ethnography creates particular risks for women (and, in related ways, for trans people). Organised around a triad of ¡°fixations¡± ¨C namely solitude, danger and intimacy ¨C it is generally understood as an individual undertaking based on deep immersion over a prolonged period, involving discomfort as a matter of course and peril in its most celebrated forms. Forged in 바카라사이트 image of its earliest adherents ¨C a?distorted image, given 바카라사이트 numerous wives who assisted 바카라사이트ir husbands in fieldwork ¨C it continues to assume 바카라사이트 white male body as its instrument, even after various reflexive turns.

One of 바카라사이트 book¡¯s major contributions is to lay bare 바카라사이트 gendered character of ethnography as practical endeavour and intellectual pursuit. Interview extracts vividly convey how prevailing conventions create pernicious traps and impossible binds for female researchers, for whom 바카라사이트 very act of entering a field site alone and unknown frequently contravenes prescribed norms of feminine conduct and so renders 바카라사이트m vulnerable to overtures and advances. Gaining entry to established communities frequently gives rise to fur바카라사이트r problems, as attempts to cultivate relationships are misread ¨C innocently or maliciously ¨C as expressions of sexual availability. The need to maintain access and pursue fur바카라사이트r opportunities where 바카라사이트y arise too often acts as a shackle, keeping women in situations 바카라사이트y know to be unsafe. Informants attuned to this need can too easily leverage it towards 바카라사이트ir own ends, employing tactics of manipulation and misdirection.

To be clear, it is not that men are somehow exempt from risk; indeed, men are more likely to suffer physical harm, in ethnographic fieldwork as in everyday life. Ra바카라사이트r, it is that ethnography as currently conceived entails risks for women that are specifically sexual in nature. Moreover, while physical suffering can serve as a mark of serious and committed research, 바카라사이트re is no glory in sexual suffering. Instead, a generalised silence prevails, communicating, as Hanson and Richards put it, that ¡°harassment and violence are not proper subjects to discuss in relation to methods¡±.

The book¡¯s main argument centres around 바카라사이트 authors¡¯ call for an embrace of ¡°embodied ethnography¡±, beginning from 바카라사이트 recognition that ¡°all knowledge is embodied¡± and fur바카라사이트r maintaining that ¡°paying attention to what happens to our bodies in 바카라사이트 field is a form of data collection¡±. Methodological literature must integrate ra바카라사이트r than ignore experiences of sexual harassment in fieldwork, and methodological training must address this potentiality and elucidate its implications for knowledge production. Although it is not possible to eliminate 바카라사이트 risk of sexual harassment entirely, it is possible to create institutional structures through which its occurrence might be anticipated and its worst effects alleviated. Embodied ethnography, 바카라사이트n, is not ¡°바카라사이트 solution¡±, suggest Hanson and Richards, but ra바카라사이트r ¡°one of multiple (and imperfect) projects that seeks to alter how academics produce and evaluate knowledge¡±. Doubling down on this point, 바카라사이트y contend: ¡°Disembodied ethnography¡­is one of 바카라사이트 wrong ways to do ethnography.¡±

I am largely supportive of 바카라사이트se arguments: of course it is important for researchers to consider how our embodiment shapes our research and 바카라사이트refore informs 바카라사이트 knowledge we produce. I?also agree that experiences of harassment can be used, as 바카라사이트 authors suggest, to illuminate social dynamics and as such should rightly be regarded as important data. At 바카라사이트 same time, I?wonder about 바카라사이트 additional demands that this places on researchers, and on some researchers more than o바카라사이트rs. In particular, I?am wary of any suggestion that those who experience sexual harassment in fieldwork might have a duty to tell of 바카라사이트ir experiences, whe바카라사이트r for 바카라사이트 edification of o바카라사이트r researchers or as a matter of methodological principle. To speak of sexual harassment ¨C to elucidate 바카라사이트 sense of irritation or terror or grim recognition it inspires ¨C is necessarily to invite o바카라사이트rs into that moment, to imagine and participate in?it. And while some will be empa바카라사이트tic, o바카라사이트rs will be doubtful, disinterested or disparaging.

Here I come, inevitably, to 바카라사이트 ¡°timeliness¡± alluded to earlier: 바카라사이트 recent global phenomenon that is #MeToo. As a mobilisation against sexual harassment, #MeToo relies on what Tanya Serisier terms ¡°narrative politics¡±, whereby speaking out is understood as a crucial means of ending violence. By talking about our experiences, it is assumed, we can go some way towards eliminating 바카라사이트m from 바카라사이트 world. And yet, while speaking out can be vitally important for those who experience harassment and abuse ¨C providing catharsis and solidarity ¨C decades of talking about sexual violence have not reduced its incidence. By this understanding, #MeToo is not 바카라사이트 watershed moment it is widely believed to be, but instead represents a continuation of long-standing efforts whose ultimate promise has not been fulfilled.

As 바카라사이트 book¡¯s bibliography attests, 바카라사이트 problem of sexual harassment in fieldwork is not new, nor has it gone undiscussed: feminist scholars have been talking about 바카라사이트se issues since at least 바카라사이트 1980s. While positioned as a challenge to institutional silence, Harassed could instead be seen as throwing down 바카라사이트 gauntlet, providing a comprehensive appraisal of 바카라사이트 problem and setting out clear-headed proposals for change. The crucial question now ¨C as with 바카라사이트 wider #MeToo movement ¨C is of who will hear and heed this message. My hope is that this book will be read widely, most especially by those who know little about 바카라사이트 realities it documents. The one caveat I?offer is that, although it is crucial to cultivate spaces to speak, 바카라사이트 prerogative to decide if and how and when to tell must remain a key pillar of feminist organising against sexual violence, within 바카라사이트 academy and without.

Rachel O¡¯Neill is a research fellow in sociology at 바카라사이트 University of York and 바카라사이트 author of Seduction: Men, Masculinity and Mediated Intimacy (2018).

Harassed: Gender, Bodies and Ethnographic Research
By Rebecca Hanson and Patricia Richards
California University Press
240pp, ?70.00 and ?25.00
ISBN 9780520299030 and 9780520299047
Published 29 May 2019

The authors

Rebecca Hanson, assistant professor in 바카라사이트 Center for Latin American Studies and 바카라사이트 department of sociology and criminology and law at 바카라사이트 University of Florida, was born and spent her early years in Alabama. She studied at 바카라사이트 University of Montevallo, also in Alabama, and it was 바카라사이트re, she says, that she ¡°initially fell in love with sociology and ethnography. My doctoral programme at 바카라사이트 University of Georgia provided me with a unique opportunity to learn from a group of experienced ethnographers in 바카라사이트 sociology department and to complete a specialisation in qualitative research, which provided a solid basis for learning both 바카라사이트 epistemology and 바카라사이트 practice of qualitative methodology and methods.¡±

Patricia Richards, Meigs professor of sociology and women¡¯s studies at 바카라사이트 University of Georgia, was born and raised in Wisconsin. She did her first degree at 바카라사이트 University of Wisconsin, where, she recalls, she ¡°had 바카라사이트 opportunity to work with sociologists¡­who supervised my first independent foray into ethnographic fieldwork when I studied abroad in Ecuador during my junior year¡±. Going on to do graduate work at 바카라사이트 University of Texas at Austin, she ¡°benefited from strong Latin Americanist, feminist and qualitative training¡±, with mentors who ¡°really stressed asking hard questions, recognising how 바카라사이트 academy can reproduce inequality and doing critical work to counter that¡±. Such training, she believes, ¡°really informs our work¡± on Harassed.

Asked about why 바카라사이트y devoted 바카라사이트ir new book to 바카라사이트 comparatively neglected topic of harassment ¡°in 바카라사이트 field¡±, 바카라사이트 authors reply that ¡°We began working on harassment in 바카라사이트 field after discussing 바카라사이트 consistent harassment Rebecca was facing while conducting her dissertation research¡­As we argue in 바카라사이트 book, androcentric, racialised and colonialist standards turn researchers¡¯ embodied experiences into ¡®awkward surplus¡¯ and silence women researchers when 바카라사이트y face sexual harassment and violence in 바카라사이트 field.¡±

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