Confronting a Mother’s Ambition: Tales From the Field

• In Event: Family in/as Fieldwork: Challenges and Possibilities of Researching (With) One's Own Family

Abstract

This presentation is a critical ethnographic account of my dissertation fieldwork on youth environmental action, which took the shape of a large-scale participatory action research conference called The BGreen Project, which I founded, spanning two different countries-U.S. and Bangladesh. Challenging established norms of public and private, I engage with personal, professional and cultural issues that I encountered while executing my research project with an infant in tow throughout the entire process. My narrative from the borderlands, explores the impact of this decision of pursuing my work during this period of time. The way in which my identity was constructed by others will be explored along with the constant vigilance around my work-ethic and commitment to my craft as a multi-tasking mother-professional. This account is a commentary on a culture that is constantly questioning an individual’s levels of efficiency and one that is still uncomfortable in blurring personal and professional lines. I am working diligently in creating spaces for voices like mine- mother, wife, woman (of some color), Muslim and Bangladeshi-American, to be articulated in the academy and beyond.

Author

• Fadia Hasan, University of Massachusetts Amhert