Fieldwork positionality (over a lifetime)
I would like to reflect on the changes I have experienced in doing fieldwork and what this says first about anthropological permutations and second about working in the context of authoritarian regimes. I’ll focus on three situations: my fieldwork in Soviet collective farms, my research in a Buddhist monastery in China, and my recent work in historical anthropology. Each involved different anthropologist-subject relations, not chosen by me. I’d also be happy to answer questions about any other aspect of my work students might be interested in.
Professor Dame Caroline Humphrey is the Director of MIASU at the University of Cambridge. https://www.socanth.cam.ac.uk/directory/professor-dame-caroline-humphrey-fba
https://www.miasu.socanth.cam.ac.uk/professor-caroline-humphrey