Family, failure and fatigue in the field: A patchwork of omissions

Abstract

This piece was originally conceived as a presentation in a webinar on 'Patchwork Ethnography' in June 2021. In both form and content, it speaks to three key concerns for feminist scholarship: the place of feminist knowledge in the academy, power and positionality in research, and an orientation towards gender justice in all spheres of life. In resisting the coerciveness of dominant academic rhetorical codes, the piece calls for taking seriously the promise of 'antihero care' ; for not just theorizing but transforming the situated lives of researchers. A starting point for such transformation is in recognizing the gendered and racialized ways in which work, care work, precarity, and privilege are distributed within and across societies and the differential risk that differently-placed researchers encounter when choosing to write subversively. Our academic and private lives are unavoidably intertwined and the need to pretend otherwise can put a great burden on scholars grappling to cope with various demands on their time and energy. There is a need for researchers to be more transparent about the devastating effects of patriarchy and neoliberal academia on their personal and professional lives. The choices we make about what and how we research, what and where we publish, and how we write can and should continue to advocate for justice for all in a world where our rights are continuously challenged.<br/>