Guest Talk Laura Thurmann

6 December 2021, 18.15
Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Only via Zoom:
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Laura Thurmann, M.A. (Manchester University):

Gendered violence and safety in fieldwork: A security network approach

During the last decade, but especially in the wake of the #metoo movement, an increasing number of individual researchers, student initiatives, and academic support groups started raising awareness about the gendered risks during fieldwork. Based on 18 months of MA and PhD research among UK and German anthropologists, I am taking a closer look at the question of what constitutes risk and safety in fieldwork and how it is connected to researchers’ gender. Moving beyond the act of raising awareness, I am addressing the question of what can be done to prevent or mitigate risks, and to support those who experienced gendered violence during fieldwork. I am exploring how some types of gendered risks can be closely interlinked with researchers’ positionalities and power dynamics in the field as well as with methods and tropes of ethnographic fieldwork. I further argue that in order to find new strategies to make fieldwork safer, it is important to involve and connect all actors, practices, and networks that provide support and security before, during, and after fieldwork.

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