Rethinking “the Field”: The Politics of Entering, Leaving, and Doing Justice to Participants Through Fieldwork

• In Event: Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Ethics, Justice, and Responsibility

Abstract

Ethnographers often describe ‘the field’ as the location in which their study occurs. However, this term is both ambiguous and contested. For example, given the expansion of social media, has ‘the field’ surpassed physical boundaries? Furthermore, what are the ethical implications of ‘entering’ and ‘leaving’ the field, especially for researchers and participants who share social identities and/or become invested in each other’s lives? Based on data and researcher reflections from an ethnographic study of trans* college student resiliency, this paper utilizes a Critical Trans Politics (Spade, 2011) theoretical perspective to expand one’s understanding of ‘the field’ as well as offer insights into how one does justice to participants from marginalized populations.

Author

• Z Nicolazzo, Miami University - Oxford