During fieldwork for my PhD in Oaxaca, Mexico, a serendipitous encounter with a group of displaced Zapotec families triggered an emotional journey against the rules of the academy and an unwitting entrée into ethnographic writing. Via a multilayered text moving between memoir, poetry, and conversations, this retrospective telling of fieldwork reveals what the academic thesis kept hidden. Written a decade ago and stored in a bag, these stories have existed separately from the completed doctoral research, thus highlighting the apparent separateness between the heartfelt experiences of “doing fieldwork” and the academic requirements of “gathering data.”
BeharR. (1996). The vulnerable observer: Anthropology that breaks your heart. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
2.
BochnerA. P. (2002). Criteria against ourselves. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (Eds.), The qualitative inquiry reader (pp. 257-265). Thousand, CA: SAGE.
3.
BochnerA. P. (2012). Between obligation and inspiration: Choosing qualitative inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry, 18, 535-543.
4.
CloughP. (2002). Narratives and fictions in educational research. Berkshire, UK: Open University Press.
5.
CoffeyA. (1999). The ethnographic self: Fieldwork and the representation of identity. London, England: SAGE.
6.
DaviesJ. (2010). Introduction. In DaviesJ.SpencerD. (Eds.), Emotions in the field: The psychology and anthropology of fieldwork experience. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
7.
DaviesJ.SpencerD. (Eds.). (2010). Emotions in the field: The psychology and anthropology of fieldwork experience. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
8.
DenzinN. K. (1997). Interpretive ethnography: Ethnographic practices for the 21st century. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
9.
DenzinN. K. (2009). The Elephant in the living room: Or extending the conversation about the politics of evidence. Qualitative Inquiry, 9, 139-160.
10.
DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (2002). The qualitative inquiry reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
HageG. (2010). Hating Israel in the field: On ethnography and political emotions. In DaviesJ.SpencerD. (Eds.), Emotions in the field: The psychology and anthropology of fieldwork experience (pp. 129-154). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
13.
HammersleyM.AtkinsonP. (1995). Ethnography: Principles in practice. London, England: Tavistock.
14.
HollandJ. (2007). Emotions and research. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 10, 195-209.
15.
hooksb. (1999). Remembered rapture—The writer at work. New York, NY: Henry Holt.
16.
KleinmanS. (1991). Fieldworkers feelings: What we feel, who we are, how we analyze. In ShaffirW.StebbinsR. (Eds.), Experiencing fieldwork: An inside view of qualitative research (pp. 184-195). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
17.
MadgeC. (1994). The ethics of research in the “Third World.” In RobsonE.WillisK. (Eds.), DARG Monograph No. 8: Postgraduate fieldwork in developing areas (pp. 91-102). London, England: Developing Areas Research Group of the Institute of British Geographers.
18.
PeliasR. (2004). A methodology of the heart. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
19.
PollardA. (2009). Field of screams: Difficulty and ethnographic fieldwork. Anthropology Matters, 11(2), 1-24.
20.
PoulosC. N. (2009). Accidental ethnography—An inquiry into family secrecy. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
21.
RichardsonL. (1997). Fields of play: Constructing an academic life. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
22.
RichardsonL. (2002). Skirting a pleated text: De-disciplining an academic life. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (Eds.), The qualitative inquiry reader (pp. 39-50). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
23.
SmithA.-M. (2007). The children of Loxicha, Mexico: Exploring ideas of childhood and the rules of participation. Children, Youth and Environments, 17, 33-55. Retrieved from http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye
24.
SmithA.-M. (2009). The children of Loxicha: Participation beyond the UNCRC rhetoric? In ThomasN. (Ed.), Children, politics and communication: Participation at the margins (pp. 49-68). Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
25.
WiddowfieldR. (2000). The place of emotions in academic research. Area, 32, 199-208.
