ANTHMETHGRP1-24-25-TASHA-CHRISTENSEN

[Last modified: December, 2 2024 11:54 AM]

The case study that I’m examining is about a student who wants to conduct research with a group of women at a domestic violence refuge in Pakistan. There are several layers of complexity here that make it a complicated project to approve from an ethics standpoint, which I’ll lay out here.

The first difficulty is that these interlocutors are in a vulnerable position. They are survivors of domestic violence, and they are staying at this refuge during a time of physical and emotional upheaval. There are also possible power dynamics at play, since the student was working there, and participants may think they’re required to participate or they’ll be at risk of removal from the refuge or other repurcussions for being “ungrateful.” There is also a great risk of harm to participants if their identity, location, or personal details were made public and their abuser found out. Unlike a lot of ethnographic research, a mistake from this student leading to a data breach could have serious, even violent repercussions. This immediately puts the project to high risk and needing to be approved by the larger UCL committee.

The matter of the individual who the student helped is another factor. There is no such thing as getting ethics approval for research done prior, so any data collected during that summer could not be used in this students’ dissertation, even if she had gotten written consent from the interlocutor. However, there’s a possibility she could cite the published article with proper permissions from the participant, as long as any information provided there would not lead to the woman’s abuser finding her or perpetuating further harm in any way. There would need to be a lot of further discussion about this, but if I were on the ethics committee, I simply don’t think this project is feasible at a master’s level. There are just too many chances for harm to be done.

[Last modified: November, 25 2024 11:48 AM]

Our group tutorial activity for this week’s theme of multimodal ethnography was very interesting. We conducted a collaborative ethnography of sorts by engaging in improvisational and theatrical games together. Two fellow students led the activity, which was called Theatre of the Oppressed, a concept invented by Brazilian theatrical practitioner Augusto Boal. The activities were meant to provoke discussion about how much information can be conveyed nonverbally by considering the body, context, affect, and space.

In one exercise, the two students posed as statues in the middle of our circle. Nathan sat on the floor, hugging their knees, looking toward Noa with a defiant look on their face. Meanwhile, Noa stood outside our circle of participants, leaning against a pillar and looking toward Nathan with arms folded and a more calm expression on her face. We then discussed our perceptions of the given scene. I was surprised by how differently everyone interpreted the scene. Some saw it as a parent and tantruming child, while others saw the two as adults in a relationship or as siblings.

This exercise made me reflective on our lecture about multimodal ethnography and how point-of-view and context are inextricable from portrayals, even with something as “objective” as a photograph, for example. My first thought would be that photographs can’t be interpretive, because they portray a scene as it occured, without the mediation of drawing or textual interpretation. However, photographs must be taken from a chosen angle and distance, which will always exclude other surroundings that would be visible if you were there in person. Additionally, photographs exclude the context of other senses, like hearing and smell. And that’s all before we consider the wide variety of ways humans interpret affect, as demonstrated by the theatrical game we conducted in class.

As I move forward in my ethnographic practices, I will be more reflexive about my perceptions of multimodality as an anthropological tool. Of course, all ethnography involves positionality, but I’m excited about the possibilities of multimodal methods to interrogate and explore the subject from a new angle. The modalities of games and audio are two particularly interesting methods I will likely pursue in future projects. I find that the limitations of a modality are what gives it meaning. With careful deliberation in collaboration with my participants, I’ll choose my ethnographic methods with deliberate care.

[Last modified: November, 18 2024 11:55 AM]

I decided to analyse the body in a quotidian context that relates to my pilot research project: the experience of holding a baby. For parents, siblings, grandparents, carers, nursery workers, labor and delivery nurses, and many others, holding a baby is a frequent and ordinary part of their day. Yet a body ethnography of the experience, not just based on the infant but on the holder, is a surprisingly deep well of observations.

Let’s start with the universal aspects. When you hold a baby, you feel its physical weight in your arms. Much emphasis is placed on baby weight; in a birth announcement, a proud parent declares “7 lbs, 6 oz!” to indicate a healthy infant. Pediatricians rigorously document the weight gain of growing infants to ensure they’re receiving proper nutrition. The distribution of weight as you hold an infant also holds disproportionate importance; think of worried parents handing over a newborn with the admonishment to “Support the neck!”

You also feel the warmth of the baby in your arms, an obvious indication of metabolic processes that confirm, “Yes, this creature is alive.” You and the baby share body heat, a symbiotic exchange that is comforting for both parties.

Then there are the body techniques that are more contextual. How you hold the infant–cradled and upright against the chest, horizontal in your arms, held out in front of you–depends on the age of the baby and your familiarity with them. A seasoned dad comfortably holding a 6-month old with one arm while carrying trays of food at a family barbecue is having a different experience than a new teenage uncle getting handed his newborn nephew for the first time: the tension of the neck and shoulders, the slow movements and extreme caution, the hesitation about where to put his hands to ensure the baby isn’t hurt, dropped, or awakened. Both parties feel a similar emotion toward the baby–love–but context deeply affects their embodiment of the moment in question.

Let’s probe deeper, to involuntary body processes. A breastfeeding mother may take an infant into her arms and experience physical reactions without even beginning the feeding process. Just the weight, warmth, look, and smell of their baby is already priming their body to nourish the infant. Many mothers, myself included, would experience the tingling sensation of “letdown” in their breasts even before the infant latched on to begin nursing. It’s an extremely unique and peculiar sensation that I remember distinctly even now, six years since my last child was born. There is an entire library’s worth of body ethnography that could be written about the experience of breastfeeding, and all of it is mired up in cultural and social norms in addition to the physical processes.

[Last modified: November, 4 2024 10:20 AM]

Trying to find political angles to my pilot research project was somewhat difficult. I don’t feel that the reborn doll community is particularly political in most ways. I could try and make some assumptions about political leanings – perhaps many of these women are right-wing because of the emphasis on traditional gender roles – but I think through further research I could be proven wrong. In fact, the very fact of me making these assumptions could affect my research and the ways I interact with interlocutors, as I was raised in a conservative, religious culture but have now left that worldview. I would need to be aware of that positionality throughout my research, always striving toward an empathetic approach instead of judgmental.

One potential subject of political interest may involve the fact that interlocutors in the reborn community sometimes use baby supplies that may be in shortage, like baby formula. This is a topic of debate within the reborn community, and many participants choose to use a slurry of other substances – like lotion and water or flour and water – in order to simulate the appearance and texture of baby formula without potentially contributing to shortages.

I’m a mother myself, and while my kids are no longer babies, I could see my biases coming into play if I am interacting with community members who choose to use real formula in their role-playing during a shortage. It’s also possible that interlocutors would be afraid to share or be honest about their usage because of my positionality.

There is a slight but not negligible chance that my research could have political outcomes for the community. Perhaps the ethnography could lead to an outcry about the recreational use of baby formula or other supplies. Maybe it would be banned, or the sale of reborn dolls curtailed in some way.

Our discussions about activist anthropology has caused me to think about the ways I may choose to adapt my methods in response to some of these issues of positionality or potential effects on the reborn community because of my research. In all honestly, I’m still contemplating whether I WANT to avoid a possible backlash if it would help vulnerable families with infants. In activist ethnography, where is the line when you see the thing the interlocutors do as immoral? Or what if there is public outcry, even if you only sought to educate? The formula shortage is a theoretical for the most part, but if I someday choose to research an even more politically controversial group, I have to figure out where that line is. How much of this is personal choice, and how much is mandated by ethics committees?

[Last modified: November, 4 2024 09:55 AM]

I did my fieldnotes exercise at MCM London Comic Con, a convention for fans of comics, movies, books, and pop culture. I was inside a large show floor hall, tucked in the corner near the food court area. I sat on the floor against the wall, as noted by the star in my sketch.

I made notes based on different aspects of anthropology. I noted that the built environment was basic and utilitarian: an enormous convention hall, with a divider to my left indicating that the wall could perhaps be opened to create an even larger space. The floor I sat on was concrete with some kind of black coating that seemed more rubbery than regular paint. The ceiling had exposed metal framework with visible ducts and rows of flourescent lights. There was little acoustic treatment in the room, making it echo with the cacophony of the hundreds of people inside.

Through lens of dress and fashion, I noted countless people dressed in cosplay, which is a form of costume in which participants craft or purchase outfits to represent a character in a beloved story. For example, there were many people dressed as characters from anime, complete with brightly colored wigs glued and shaped into the unrealistic forms found on the animated characters. Participants sometimes dressed as gender-bent characters, although I more often noticed people with feminine bodies dressing as male characters than vice versa.

The age of people around me was almost entirely teenagers and young adults. There was a small amount of children with parents and even fewer elderly. From my position as an outside observer, it was hard to know whether any of the groups included siblings or spouses, but I did observe demonstrations of kinship in a few parent-child interactions observed. A man walked passed me with a young son on his shoulders who was dressed as Blippi, a kids’ YouTube star. Later, I observed a young woman in an elaborate Sailor Moon cosplay walking with an older woman who appeared to be her mother. Like many of the older participants, the mother was not in cosplay, but had a bandana on her head and appeared to have no hair. If I were to make an assumption, she may have been in recovery from a disease like cancer, and I was touched to see her attending the convention in support of something her daughter was obviously passionate about.

I found my notes to be quite useful in reconsctructing the scene for my memory after I left it. The drawing brought me back to my position at the time, although I feel a photograph may have been more effective and evocative. What I found particularly useful was my sorting and labeling of my observations under headings of the anthropological themes I was noticing.

[Last modified: October, 21 2024 11:17 AM]

I plan to conduct research into the reborn community on social media, which is a group of women and girls who buy, make, and roleplay parenthood with extremely lifelike “reborn” dolls. Most are designed to replicate the ages of newborn (including premature) to around one year old. These dolls are weighted and painted to feel as close to reality as possible, and many of the owners go through the exact motions of motherhood with them: giving bottles, changing diapers, taking for public outings, and sometimes even breastfeeding. Currently, my research question is:

• Why do these women spend a large amount of time and money on these dolls, when the action of doing so (especially publicly) is non-normative?

I’d also like to explore the bonds formed in this activity: between owner and doll and between owner and other owners.

My positionality will undoubtedly play a role in this research. I am a mother of two (human) children, so I have experienced the ups and downs of raising of a newborn twice over. I will doubtless have some personal biases stemming from that. To complicate things, I was raised in a very traditional culture that held motherhood as the pinnacle of existence for a woman. I followed that path to a point, but my current feelings about gender roles are quite different and will grant me biases in regard to the way the teenage girls in this community fetishize the actions of motherhood.

As the name implies, some owners of reborn dolls use them as a way to cope with pregnancy or infant loss. My positionality as a person who has experienced pregnancy loss grants me a type of empathy that may be helpful in my participant observation of this community. It may also help gain the trust of interlocuters, many of whom also have living children like myself.

Two other big parts of my positionality to consider are class and education. I was raised in a lower financial bracket, but I am currently living an upper-middle class life in my home country. A large portion of reborn owners seem to be in the working class and sometimes with a lower level of education. I have a lot of internalized biases from the way I was raised, including implicit judgments about education and intelligence. No anthropologist can go into a fieldsite completely neutral, but I will certainly need to stay aware of these potential biases during my research. As Danny Miller says, anthropology is a discipline of “radical empathy,” and so I will design my research in a way that avoids pre-suppositions and allows the interlocuters to speak for themselves.

[Last modified: October, 14 2024 11:47 AM]

Just before noon on Friday, I stepped into the churchyard of St. Pancreas Parish. The 19th century building is across the street from Euston Station in London, and its yard provides a small respite from the busy street outside.

Here’s an audio recording I took of the church’s bell:

I came here because it was the only place I could think of close to UCL that I could go to during our observation exercise with some kind of tenuous link to my original pilot research project, about Egyptian women and identity. You see, this churchyard holds two food trucks: one for the Turkish food gözleme, and one selling falafel, a deep-fried ball of chickpea goodness originating in Egypt.

Like I said, tenuous.

 

I was the only person in the yard for a while, as it was only 11:10 AM, but eventually others began to arrive. I let my mind mull over some of the themes and topics I’m interested in for this pilot research project: gender, identity, economy, religious identity. As a small exercise, I tallied the number of men and women I saw during my half-hour tenure in the yard.

Fallen leaves littered the grass, and the gravel path behind me crunched pleasantly as people walked by. A pair of men in the corner, who seemed not to know each other when they sat down in adjacent benches, were now chatting amiably about something. Possibly football. The sound of squeaky bus brakes could be mistaken for birdsong if you weren’t listening particularly closely:

As a good practitioner of participant observation, I decided to buy some falafel myself. I noticed that most people were here for gözleme, with only a few diverting to the falafel truck instead. Most were women, though I doubt that means much. I ordered a falafel wrap and panic-added halloumi, even though I’ve over-consumed the salty, delicious cheese since I moved to London and am a bit sick of the stuff. My credit card declined for no reason in particular; I’d just used it successfully this morning. Another thing I’ve run into since migrating here.

I’m thinking of changing my research question a bit to fit better into my potential dissertation. I’d still include similar themes but perhaps focus more on the economic side of things: buying and selling, value, trading. I’ve recently become interested in a community mostly connected via TikTok and YouTube: those who buy, sell, and roleplay parenthood with life-like “Reborn” baby dolls. I’ll write more about that in future posts.

Wrap acquired, I walked down the gravel path and left the churchyard, returning to the noisy street.

[Last modified: October, 6 2024 10:21 PM]

For my pilot research project, I’d like to study the topic of women in Cairo and identity. I speak Egyptian Arabic and I’ve visited Cairo before, but in public I was mostly only able to interact with men. I want to learn more about the women who live there and how they express individualism. I have two research questions: How do these women explore and express self-identity? And does this differ when in public, on social media, at home, and in private online communities?

In Social Media in Emergent Brazil, Spyer indicates a difference between “lights on” and “lights off” presentation. I will explore how this theory interacts with the culture of Cairo. Do women living there present different versions of themselves based on who will see or hear? I know I have my own versions of “lights on” and “lights off” identity presentation as a woman who grew up in a U.S. Christian community.

With regard to ethics, I do bring certain biases to this topic with regards to religion, feminism, and Western vs. Middle Eastern culture. I intend to use methods that will present the various realities of these women as they see fit, with a focus on ethnography. I am an audio journalist, so audio recordings will play a large role, both via in-depth interviews and immersive “soundscape”-type recordings. I’ll also use critical discourse analysis in the form of sitting down with sources to scroll their social media and take notes on their explanations of images, text posts, and interactions. This will provide insight into how they view their own versions of “lights on” and “lights off” identity presentation.

One obstruction to this research may be finding access and building trust with this community. While I have a personal network that may be useful in this research, I am currently only acquainted with male colleagues in Cairo. I plan to use those connections as well as asking online groups in order to find willing interlocutors for this ethnography.

I believe this research proposal is both anthropological and ethnographic because it addresses the quotidian: day-to-day choices and interactions that add up to a sense of being. The research questions are open and flexible enough to change with new data. They are actionable because they involve traveling to the fieldsite, Cairo, and conducting ethnographic research within a specific community.

[Last modified: October, 1 2024 05:15 PM]

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