@theTable: “Parenting in the Field: Balancing Ethnographic Research on Religion with Family Life”
There is a lot of talk these days about women in the academy and the obstacles they face in the form of sexual harassment, overloaded service requirements, and biased teaching evaluations, just to name a few. Although universities may not be the friendliest place for women, particularly those with families, sometimes parents find work-life balance within their research. Just as often, conducting research can highlight the challenges of being a researcher with a family in academe.
This FSR Blog’s @theTable and partnered open call explore some of the experiences of ethnographers who take their families along on research trips. As the summer approaches and we plan research visits for us and summer camp for our kids, we will consider several questions in this blog series. What are the challenges and advantages of conducting research with families as an individual with a family? How are our families part of the research setting? Are they researchers? Participants? Observers? Can we shield our children from what they hear, see, or experience during a research trip? Broadly, this blog series engages with a question of many feminist ethnographers, how do we, as embodied individuals, create distinct ethnographic relationships that cultivate unique research findings?
This @theTable series welcomes blogs that focus on women’s, men’s, transgender, and gender non-conforming people’s experiences, inasmuch as they address intersections between research and families, broadly defined.
The blogs in this @theTable explore these and other questions related to conducting ethnographic research on religion and families as someone with a family. The open call for blogs invites readers to reflect and respond to the conversation generated by the panel. Authors are invited to include a picture of themselves and their family conducting research.
Submissions Guidelines: https://www.fsrinc.org/blog-submissions/.
Contact: [email protected].
Our @theTable Authors (in order of publication):
Tuesday: Michal Raucher, “Feminist Ethnography Inside and Outside the Field”
Wednesday: Katherine Dugan, “Navigating Ethnography as a Divorced Single Mom”
Thursday: Justine Howe, “Becoming a Parent in the Field, or How I Learned to Let Go of the Ideal of Objective Research”
Friday: Amanda Baugh, “Exposing my Kids to Ideas I Avoid: The Inelegance of Parenting in the Field”
Next: Michal Raucher, “Feminist Ethnography Inside and Outside the Field” (Part 1)
Check out previous FSR Blog @theTables!