How to encourage innovative forms of expression while preserving the rigour that defines good research
What makes a piece of poetry, fiction or a sound recording also anthropological? How can drawing or sketching become ethnographic? Is it enough that the work is by an anthropologist or ethnographer? How can we make these alternative forms of expression more visible and legitimate, yet also uphold academic standards?
These are some of the pressing questions occupying Cambridge anthropologists Iza Kavedžija, Natalia Buitron and Liana Chua. “We know what constitutes good ethnography,” says Kavedžija, Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology. “We know what constitutes good research – we are trained for many years to recognise that. Suddenly, we are faced with a poem and told it’s ethnographic. How do we know it's good?”
Stimulating new creative practices
The trio’s interest reflects a wider shift towards alternative forms of expression in the fields of ethnography and anthropology in recent years.
“Anthropologists have long embraced forms of expressions beyond writing: sketching, recording sound, photography, film,” explains Kavedžija. “What is different is how much of that enters the presentation and exposition of the work, and is not just kept as a private process behind the scenes. There's an interest now in trying to show the processes behind the formal research.”
But this interest also responds to the growing recognition that not all knowledge fits comfortably into linear, text-based argument. In other words, not everything is best represented by an academic article. More creative, less restricted language or artistic expression can sometimes reveal greater meaning and more nuanced understandings of anthropologists’ observations.
“Ethnography requires a long-term engagement with a particular group of people, representing their point of view,” explains Kavedžija. “And in trying to represent and engage with people whose ways of knowing might be different, we are trying to find a means to illustrate that difference to others. Sometimes we're forced to think creatively how to do that.”
Validating alternative expression
As more anthropologists embrace alternative forms of expression—poetry, fiction, sound, and visual art among others—they face a new challenge. Scholars are grappling with how to evaluate such work for submission to formal publications, particularly when it defies established academic formats and guidelines.
In response, a recent Cambridge-based workshop at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) brought together anthropologists, artists, and writers from across the UK, Europe and the US to collectively deliberate this practical remit.
A handful of specialised journals already accept a range of visual and expressive outputs, such as ethnographic fiction and photo essays. With the rise of the digital journal, there is greater capacity to publish alternative formats online, not always possible in print.
Yet many still publish these outputs without the expert scrutiny of the peer-review process. The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology (CJA) – an international publication based in Cambridge’s Department of Social Anthropology – now aims to bridge that gap. Its editors, Buitron and Chua, are looking for clear and unrestrictive guidelines for their peer-reviewers, to help benchmark the consistent quality of submissions. Their two-day workshop sought direction on this task.
“With guidelines, we hope to generate more interest in these alternative outputs,” says Kavedžija. “It’s our hope that if more journals accept alternative forms of ethnographic expression, they will become more legitimate and recognised practices. And with a certain threshold to meet, it should also increase the overall quality of submissions.”
Diverse approaches
Kavedžija has published ethnographic fiction before. In fact, it was a collection of her short stories – offered to CJA – that set this process in motion. Narrative has been an important part of her research ever since she conducted extensive fieldwork with elderly residents in Japan’s Kansai region, where storytelling is a habitual way of life.
Her recent research with contemporary Japanese artists deepened her understanding. “They persuaded me that there's a limit to how much they can explain in words, what I call ‘emergent imagination’. That only by starting to create, by moving their hands, will they see the questions they want to ask through their creative practice.” This revelation led Kavedžija to start printmaking to creatively inform her anthropological research.
The Cambridge workshop showcased many other anthropologists who combine their traditional ethnography with other such innovative methods.
Maxime Le Calvé (Humboldt University Berlin) presented his graphic anthropology focused on performative practices in neurosurgery. He illustrates live in operation theatres, helping to generate new conversations with the neurosurgeons on their work. His briskly executed sketches foster connection, leading to richer discussions of what Le Calvé has observed.
Quite differently, Roxanne Varzi (University of California Irvine) uses ethnographic fiction as a form of experimentation, but also to protect her subjects and future as an anthropologist of Iran. Her bestselling ethnographic novels maintain the veracity of her research, whilst staying away from politically sensitive specifics. An unintended consequence is that her novels have reached a much broader readership beyond academia.
Images: Decameron 3 & 9, Linocut © Iza Kavedžija.
Created for the 'Decameron Relived' collection of ethnographic fiction stories (2020), invited and edited by Iza Kavedžija.
Core findings
Among the workshop’s many insights, one stood out. “We discovered the evaluative qualities come from within the project,” says Kavedžija. “Is the form called for in some way by the material or experience of the researcher? When is the research such that it requires another form of contribution beyond just text?”
One clear example comes from the Head of Department, Sian Lazar, whose Sounds of Protest podcast records different street protest movements in Argentina. “To speak about protests without using sound is incredibly difficult. The material calls for this particular form of engagement,” says Kavedžija.
The workshop also settled on another conclusive point. “There will always be a real strength to writing. We can spot where the logical structure of the argument is laid bare. We can clarify our thought wonderfully, and therefore that skill has been perfected.”
But these alternative contributions should not be thought of as opposing language: “they are mutually cross fertilising. Embracing other formats changes the way we write text. It changes our sensibility to writing.” Instead, the question becomes: what can sketching, photography, poetry or sound also articulate that academic writing alone cannot?
Looking ahead
The team aims to publish the CJA peer-review guidelines later this year, and hopes to share them more widely after.
Kavedžija is optimistic about the path forward: “By implementing a more rigorous process to ensure the quality of what’s published in journals would be to persuade anyone who is resisting this kind of change. That's where the Cambridge Journal of Anthropology holds great promise and responsibility.”
Dr Iza Kavedžija is a social and medical anthropologist specialising in Japan, with primary research interests spanning health and wellbeing; ageing and the life course; and art and creativity. She is Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge.
Words by Joanne Dodd, Communications Coordinator in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Lead image: Field note from the neurosurgery © Maxime Le Calvé, Berlin, 2022