PAPER

Power and Politics in/of Ethnographic Research

The short version

PAPER is a project that addresses questions of decoloniality (anti-racism, anti-colonialism, class, (dis)ability, and gender/sexual discrimination) in ethnographic fieldwork.

Holding four open seminars across February and March 2021, and two PhD-focussed workshops in April 2021, PAPER aims to deliver a space where researchers in anthropology can approach these issues, and firmly embed the praxis of decoloniality into their anthropological work.

We are delighted to invite you to be part of the PAPER project.

The long version

Introducing PAPER, Power and Politics in/of Ethnographic Research; a timely and imperative seminar series, interrogating the ongoing decolonisation of ethnographic fieldwork, with aims to instigate pedagogical progress within the department, enmeshing care as praxis and prioritising decolonial ethical practice within our discipline.

Created and run by PhD researchers in UCL’s Anthropology department, PAPER will address the power and positionality of the researcher within the delicate politics of participation and observation, and challenge ideas about representation, through an exploration of indigenous methodologies, collaborative authorship and the ways in which we acknowledge and share ethnographic time with our participants.

This series will create an open space for students, staff and researchers to ask questions such as, how can we best create a research praxis that acknowledges and works to surpass the imperialist and extractivist history of our discipline? How do we develop and sustain relationships with our participants, both in and out of the field, in order to centre care and respect, whilst also mediating potential power imbalances?

Who are PAPER?

We are a small team of PhD researchers, based at UCL’s Anthropology department, organising a series of seminars and workshops across the 2021 academic year. We are funded by UCL ChangeMakers and UCL Anthropology’s Anti-Racism Committee (ARC).

The project itself was developed as a direct response to calls from UCL Anthropology PhD cohorts to address and implement anti-racist research practice, alongside our personal reflections (and frustrations) on the historical legacy of colonialism in anthropology, and our own experiences of ethnographic training.

We, the organisers, are a group of researchers who are also in the process of de-learning and addressing their own positionality within these complex topics. Whilst by no means experts on decoloniality, we are dedicated to structural institutional change by creating a space to discuss and challenge current fieldwork training and the pedagogy of ethical praxis. We hope this series will act as a small, but hopeful, step in the right direction.