On November 22, 2024, Dr. Sarandha Jain will discuss challenges in studying technical infrastructures like oil refining in India. She will explore governance, secretive knowledge, and anthropological biases through her fieldwork, inviting dialogue on methodologies and implications of such research for state-citizen relations, based on her extensive background in anthropology. Continue reading →

n the summer of 2012, when the war between the Kurdish guerrillas and the Turkish army reached a crescendo, I started my ethnographic research in Gever (Yüksekova in Turkish), a Kurdish border town in the southeastern tip of Turkey. As I was spending my first days with my family and friends and slowly getting ready to embark on my first extensive fieldwork, the town was shaken up by the news that the Turkish helicopters, fighter jets, and artilleries were pounding the mountainous terrain in the neighbouring town of Şemzînan, located just 50 kilometres to the southeast of Gever. Everyone in the town was sure that Gever would be the next battleground. Conducting ethnographic research under these conditions as a native anthropologist was a considerable risk for me, my interlocutors, and my family and friends. Instead of immediately “writing down” or digitally recording my fieldwork data, I turned to the Kurdish oral tradition and devised storytelling as the primary mechanism to tell and retell the stories I collected during my research. Postponing the process of “writing down” was a tactic I developed during my fieldwork as I learned how local Kurds used waiting as a distinct temporal orientation to evade state control, organize political action, and navigate highly militarized borderlands. By elaborating on the methodological tactics I developed by combining Kurdish oral tradition with the everyday strategies of my research participants, namely waiting, this paper will offer some practical advice to researchers on developing flexible research designs and learning from their research participants how to navigate repressive or militarized settings. Continue reading →

The City of Toronto History Museums are working to diversify the stories they present. Students in ANT465: Ethnographic Practicum – Toronto Tours conducted research to explore visitor experiences and perceptions of diversity at the Spadina Museum and Fort York National Historic Site. The research findings will be shared on September 6, 2024. Continue reading →

Dr. Marie Odgaard will discuss “In-between spaces for playful reparative praxis” at an upcoming event on February 27, 2024. The event, held at AP246, Toronto, will offer a hybrid format. Registration is required, and lunch will be provided. For more information and to register, visit the provided link. Continue reading →