TY - JOUR
T1 - Inhabiting the Space Between Search and Research
AU - Hassouna, Silvia
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Copyright Peter B. Brown, 2023. Published with license by Brill Schöningh.
PY - 2021/12/17
Y1 - 2021/12/17
N2 - This article explores the connections between personal and research journeys as a central aspect of positionality and reflexivity. It develops in conversation with ethnographies produced by feminist, diasporic and 'halfie' researchers. Based on fieldwork extracts from my doctoral research with Palestinian museums in the West Bank, I discuss the possibility of using our vulnerabilities to displace discourses that portray research participants as 'those in need'. I use the concept of bahth, in Arabic 'to search, to seek, to pursue', as a means to connect personal and research journeys. Building on Naeem Inayatullah's notion of the insecure self, I suggest that inhabiting the research/search boundary requires stressing one's lacks and vulnerabilities. This is not a call on reflexivity for its own sake but a means to unsettle assigned roles with research participants, even if only in provisional and contextual ways.
AB - This article explores the connections between personal and research journeys as a central aspect of positionality and reflexivity. It develops in conversation with ethnographies produced by feminist, diasporic and 'halfie' researchers. Based on fieldwork extracts from my doctoral research with Palestinian museums in the West Bank, I discuss the possibility of using our vulnerabilities to displace discourses that portray research participants as 'those in need'. I use the concept of bahth, in Arabic 'to search, to seek, to pursue', as a means to connect personal and research journeys. Building on Naeem Inayatullah's notion of the insecure self, I suggest that inhabiting the research/search boundary requires stressing one's lacks and vulnerabilities. This is not a call on reflexivity for its own sake but a means to unsettle assigned roles with research participants, even if only in provisional and contextual ways.
KW - 'Halfie' researchers
KW - positionality
KW - search
KW - vulnerability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85180074746&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1163/25903276-bja10030
DO - 10.1163/25903276-bja10030
M3 - Article
SN - 2590-3276
VL - 2
SP - 297
EP - 315
JO - Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences
JF - Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences
IS - 2
ER -