autoethnography and the archive what anthropological research methods can do for the archive...
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Autoethnography
and the Archive
What anthropological
research methods can do for
the archive professional
Why do researchers
choose their methods?• Objectivity versus Subjectivity
• Researcher versus Subject
• How a researcher situates
themselves in their project can
determine their results• Our research methods shape
our work as professionals
Alexander Randall (1917-1982)
Register entry for the birth of Alexander Randall accessed via www.familysearch.org [30th July 2011]
Judit
h E
thert
on, ‘T
he
Role
of
Arc
hiv
es
in t
he
Perc
epti
on o
f Self’
‘The advice from care
professionals is that we [as archivists] must never underestimate the
need to know, especially for people
separated from family
or a family member, or
the emotional upheaval that the search itself can cause.’ (p. 235)
Mart
in B
ash
fort
h,
‘Abse
nt
Fath
ers
,
Prese
nt
His
tori
es’
, in
People
and t
heir
Past
s
‘One can be simultaneously the gatherer of materials...
and the one who interprets the materials
and presents this interpretation to the
world... while physically
and emotionally being
the object of research.’
(p. 204)
What
can w
e d
o?
How can I tap into my empathy for family historians and other potentially vulnerable researchers?
Can anthropology help us investigate the cultural and human value of archives and records?
What is autoethnograph
y?
Auto
eth
nogra
phy
“Auto-”
Autos: Greek
term for
‘self’ or
‘one’s own’
“Ethnography
” A scientific
description
of the
customs of
peoples and
cultures.
Ethnos:
People
Grapho: to
write
Definitio
ns o
f
auto
eth
nogra
phy
A form of self-narrative
that places the self
within a social context.
Autoethnographies
compare the
experiences of the
author with those of
other people.
Deborah Reed-Danahay, (ed.),
Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the
Self and the Social, (1997)
Definitio
ns o
f
auto
eth
nogra
phy
‘… a qualitative research
method which utilizes
ethnographic methods to
bring cultural interpretations
to the autobiographical data
of researchers with the
intent of understanding
self and its connection
with others’
Heewon Chang, Autoethnography
as Method, (2008)
Definitio
ns o
f
auto
eth
nogra
phy
An engagement in a
relationship between your
personal experiences and
your research
A selection of creative ways
to demonstrate your findings
Immense satisfaction from
the personal growth that
(sometimes) ensues
Tessa Muncey, Creating
Autoethnographies, (2010)
Definitio
ns o
f
auto
eth
nogra
phy
Autoethnography uses:
‘systematic sociological
introspection and
emotional recall to try to
understand an experience
we’ve lived through. Then
we write our experience
as a story’.
Carolyn Ellis and Arthur P. Bochner,
‘Autoethnography, Personal Narrative,
Reflexivity: Researcher as Subject’, in Handbook
of Qualitative Research, 2nd edn. (2000)
AutoethnographyAutoethnography is a branch of
postmodern ethnography which
uses the researcher’s life
experiences as a device to
frame the investigation and as a
source of data in its own right.
Data
Colle
ctio
nField notes: Caribbean
Family History Group
Meetings
Diary: research the life
of my maternal grandfather
Interview with a family
historian
Inte
rvie
w E
xtra
ct
“The technology helps in presentation at least, yeah it is useful. I haven’t really mastered it either. It’s about finding time to do all of these things and it’s- it’s only when you find time to put a few hours in that you do and that goes in. I might put it down for months and go back to it. But at least uh I would say that it’s- I’ve had a lapse- a lapse in the sense that I found who owned my great great great grandfather and... and just finding out the name of that... owner uh... I wouldn’t say it was sort of shock but there’s some subconscious traumatised situation that stops you from going further and it’s very difficult to go further in Barbados because Barbados did not ah import a lot of slaves uh after a certain period. They bred their own and uh and they were mainly women for- and though it was an entry point from Africa it was just a clean up job and sent off to other islands to order etcetera. So uh linking it with Africa, which was the step that I wanted to take, uh was a little frustrating because the records that... direct me there and haven’t really got into uh... really researching that because that’s the big one because the records are here and uh I think there’s a subscription for that and... I haven’t pursued it.”
Auto
eth
nogra
ph
y: why / w
hy
not?
The Case for
the
Prosecution
Time (or lack
thereof)
Being
vulnerable is
for the
fearless
Ethics:
sharing
stories that
don’t belong
to you
The Case for
the Defence
It’s fun (no,
really!)
Autoethnograp
hy is
complementary
Autoethnograp
hy can teach us
how to be
better at what
we do
Thank
you
for
liste
nin
g!
Martin Bashforth, ‘Absent Fathers, Present Histories’, in
People and their Pasts: Public History Today, ed. by Paul
Ashton and Hilda Kean (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan,
2009), pp. 203-222
Heewon Chang, Autoethnography as Method, (California:
Left Coast Press, 2008)
Carolyn Ellis and Arthur P. Bochner, ‘Autoethnography,
Personal Narrative, Reflexivity: Researcher as Subject’, in
Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd edn. ed. by Norman
K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln (California: Sage
Publications Inc., 2000), pp. 733-768
Judith Etherton, ‘The Role of Archives in the Perception of
Self’, Journal of the Society of Archivists, 27:2 (2006), 227-
246Ruth Finnegan, ‘Family Myths, Memories and Interviewing’,
in The Oral History Reader, ed. by Robert Perks and Alistair
Thomson, pp. 177-183
Ellen T Luepker, Record Keeping in Psychotherapy and
Counselling: Projecting Confidentiality and the Professional
Relationship (New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2003)
Tessa Muncey, Creating Autoethnographies, (London: Sage
Publishers Ltd., 2010)
Deborah E. Reed-Danahay, (ed.), Auto/Ethnography:
Rewriting the Self and the Social, (Oxford: Berg, 1997)