By Amani Hassan

Making the strange familiar and the familiar strange is central to ethnographic research. Ethnography typically involves participant observation, where the researcher immerses themself in a community to understand it from a culturally relative perspective. But how do you approach this when you are researching two groups and are also an active member of one of them?

My project was a partial auto-ethnography focused on the process of starting and running a recognized student club at U of T from the perspectives of a student club leader. I also undertook research with staff at Student Life’s Clubs and Leadership Development Department. This dual perspective provided valuable insights into both sides of the symbiotic relationship between the two groups. However, my positionality created challenges in the research process.

Fieldwork at my club site was easier due to my established rapport and access. In contrast, spending time observing Student Life (SL) presented more ethical challenges, as my interlocutors were strangers simply doing their jobs, and I had to be mindful not to disrupt their routines. At my student union, however, I was working with individuals I knew well, which allowed me to gather rich data from their perspectives. Yet, my close relationships with them also introduced bias, particularly since I initially chose my topic based on the belief that many club leaders felt SL was not the helpful resource it claimed to be.

To approach my research ethically, I realized I needed to be mindful of practicing cultural relativism in my interactions with SL. As a researcher, my role was to understand the department on its own terms, without imposing my experiences as a student leader. This is always crucial in ethnographic work, but it was especially difficult here, as many of my assumptions about SL that guided my initial interest had been shaped and reinforced by my experiences in my own student union. 

Ironically, the solution to this in my case seemed to present itself in the auto-ethnographic process. By reflecting on my own experiences, I began to deconstruct what I had previously considered “normal.” This helped me appreciate the more mundane aspects of my club life, and discover that my position in the union, though familiar, also felt somewhat foreign. Reflecting on this allowed me to realize that my relationship with my classmates had evolved. We were no longer just friends chatting about school or social events; we were now connected by a shared goal of supporting our peers, which illuminated a connection to SL’s mission in a way I hadn’t explored yet. This evolving understanding of my own experiences ultimately helped me frame my project around the goals shared by both Clubs and Leadership and student leaders— thus guiding my project into an exploration of how this mutual relationship functions to foster community and engagement at UofT.