Table Of Contentf e m i n i s t
E T H N O G R A P H Y
THINKING THROUGH METHODOLOGIES,
CHALLENGES, AND POSSIBILITIES
DÁNA-AIN DAVIS & CHRISTA CRAVEN
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Davis, Dána-Ain, 1958– author. | Craven, Christa, 1975– author.
Title: Feminist ethnography : thinking through methodologies, challenges, and possibilities / by Dána-Ain Davis
and Christa Craven.
Description: Lanham, MD : Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015045939 (print) | LCCN 2016008411 (ebook) | ISBN 9780759122444 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780759122451 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780759122468 (Electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Feminist theory. | Feminism—Research. | Women’s studies—Methodology. | Social sciences—
Research—Methodology. | Feminists—Biography.
Classification: LCC HQ1190 .D385 2016 (print) | LCC HQ1190 (ebook) | DDC 305.4201—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015045939
∞ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for
Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Brief Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
Timeline xv
Introduction 1
1
What Is the “Feminist” in Feminist Ethnography? 7
2
Historicizing Feminist Ethnography 29
3
Debates and Interventions in Feminist Ethnography 53
4
How Does One Do Feminist Ethnography? 75
5
Challenges for Feminist Ethnographers 99
6
Producing Feminist Ethnography 121
7
Feminist Activist Ethnography 145
8
Thinking Through the Future of Feminist Ethnography: Conversations
with Feminist Ethnographers 167
Glossary 173
Bibliography 175
Index 189
About the Authors 195
iii
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
Timeline xv
Introduction 1
How We Got Here: Serendipity and Collaboration 2
Thinking Through This Text 4
Unique Features of This Book 5
1 What Is the “Feminist” in Feminist Ethnography? 7
Spotlights: Cheryl Rodriguez on Feminist Thinking 8
What Is Feminist Ethnography? 9
Spotlights: Talisa Feliciano on Challenging Established Theories 11
Essentials: Commentary on Doing Feminist Ethnography by Rosemarie A. Roberts 12
Spotlights: Scott L. Morgensen on the Influence of Feminist Ethnography 13
What Contributed to the History of Feminisms? 14
Essentials: A Portion of the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments, July 19, 1848 15
How Are Feminist Perspectives Categorized? 20
Spotlights: Gayle Rubin’s Influence 23
Essentials: Excerpt from the Combahee River Collective Statement 25
Essentials: Excerpt from “Under Western Eyes Revisited” by Chandra
Talpade Mohanty 26
Conclusion 27
2 Historicizing Feminist Ethnography 29
Who Were Some of the Early Contributors to Feminist Ethnography? 30
Essentials: Excerpt from The Omaha Tribe by Alice Fletcher and Francis
LaFlesche 32
How Did Feminist Ethnography Mature Between the 1920s and 1960s? 33
Essentials: Excerpt from Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston 35
What Impact Did the Women’s Movement of the 1960s Have on the Next
Phase of Feminist Ethnographic Production? (1960s–1980s) 36
Spotlights: Florence Babb on the Impact of Woman, Culture, and Society
and Toward an Anthropology of Women 38
Essentials: Excerpt from “Too Queer for College” by Esther Newton 40
Spotlights: Louise Lamphere on the Legacy of Lamphere v. Brown 41
What Interventions Came Out of Feminist Ethnography from the 1990s
Through the Present? 43
Essentials: Excerpt from “Methodological Gifts in Latina/o Studies and Feminist
Anthropology” by Gina Pérez 45
v
vi Contents
Spotlights: Lee Baker on Feminist Histories 49
Conclusion 48
3 Debates and Interventions in Feminist Ethnography 53
Who Should Be Claimed as a Feminist Ethnographer? 54
Essentials: Excerpt from Decolonizing Methodologies: Research And Indigenous
Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith 55
Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography? 56
Essentials: Excerpt from “Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography?” by Judith
Stacey 57
Essentials: Excerpt from Feminism and Method by Nancy A. Naples 59
How Have Feminist Ethnographers Approached the Insider/Outsider
Dilemma? 60
Spotlights: Shannon Speed on Fieldwork and Identity 62
Essentials: Excerpt from Desbordes by María Amelia Viteri 64
What Is the Role of Citational Politics in Feminist Ethnography? 65
Essentials: Excerpt from “Telling It Straight: Black Feminist Intellectual Thought
in Anthropology” by Lynn Bolles 66
Essentials: Excerpt from “Making Feminist Points,” on the Feminist Killjoys Blog
by Sara Ahmed 68
How Involved or Engaged Should a Feminist Ethnographer Be? 69
Spotlights: Ishan Gordon-Ugarte on the Power and Potential Drawbacks of
Challenging Positivism 69
Spotlights: Mary L. Gray on the Labor of Feminist Ethnography 71
Conclusion 72
4 How Does One Do Feminist Ethnography? 75
Essentials: Excerpt from “Method and Methodology” by Faye V. Harrison 76
How Should a Feminist Ethnographer Choose a Topic? 78
Spotlights: Elisabeth Engebretsen on Choosing Methods and
Shifting Knowledge 79
Can an Ethnographer’s Personal Experience Be a Part of a Study? 81
Essentials: Excerpt from Veiled Sentiments by Lila Abu-Lughod 82
What Methods Have Been Useful to Feminist Ethnographers? 84
Essentials: Excerpt from Queer Activism in India by Naisargi Dave 86
Spotlights: Tracy Fisher on Using Oral/Life History to Address Feminist
Ethnographic Questions 88
Spotlights: Whitney Battle-Baptiste on Historical Archaeology and Literary
Fiction 92
Essentials: Excerpt from “Photovoice” by Caroline Wang and Mary Ann Burris 94
Conclusion 95
5 Challenges for Feminist Ethnographers 99
Spotlights: Elizabeth Chin on Envisioning a Feminist IRB Process 100
What Logistical Constraints Arise in Feminist Ethnographic Research? 101
Contents vii
Essentials: Excerpt from “Global Ethnography: Problems of Theory and Method”
by Susan Erikson 103
Essentials: Excerpt from “Cast among Outcastes” by Delores Walters 105
Essentials: Excerpt from Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork by Diane Wolf 106
How Do Ethical Concerns Shape the Research Encounter? 107
Essentials: Excerpt from Parallel Worlds: An Anthropologist and a Writer Encounter
Africa by Alma Gottlieb and Philip Graham 108
Spotlights: Loretta Ross on Working with Former Skinhead White Supremacists 111
Spotlights: Tanya Erzen on the Politics of Reciprocity and Mediation 113
(How) Should You “Give Back” to Research Participants? 114
How Can We Assess the (Potential) Impacts of Feminist Ethnography? 115
Spotlights: Kiersten Downs on “Feminist Curiosity” and Stamina 116
Spotlights: Sandra Morgen on Movement Building 117
Conclusion 119
6 Producing Feminist Ethnography 121
How Does One Write Feminist Ethnography? 122
Essentials: Excerpt from Alive in the Writing by Kirin Narayan 125
Essentials: Excerpt from Playing with Fire by the Sangtin Writers Collective
and Richa Nagar 127
What Creative Possibilities Exist for Writing and Circulating
Feminist Ethnography? 128
Spotlights: Aimee Meredith Cox on Writing, Establishing Relationships,
and Failure 129
Spotlights: Asale Angel-Ajani on Writing (Without Swagger) 130
Essentials: Excerpt from A World of Babies by Judy DeLoache and Alma
Gottlieb 132
Essentials: Excerpt from Downtown Ladies, “My Jelly Platform Shoes”
by Gina Athena Ulysse 134
How Can We Make Feminist Ethnography Publicly Accessible? 137
Spotlights: Harjant Gill on Film as a Powerful Feminist Medium 138
How Do Feminist Ethnographers Engage in Creative and Artistic Projects? 139
Conclusion 142
7 Feminist Activist Ethnography 145
Spotlights: Leith Mullings on Making Feminist Ethnography Meaningful 146
What Does It Mean to Be a Feminist Activist Ethnographer? 147
What Should Feminist Activist Ethnography Seek to Accomplish? 150
Essentials: Excerpt from “Water Is Life—Meter’s Out!” by Susan Brin Hyatt 151
Is Feminist Ethnography Inherently Activist? 152
What Forms Can Feminist Activist Ethnography Take? 153
Spotlights: Marianne Maeckelbergh on Being a Feminist Activist Scholar 154
Essentials: Excerpt from the Fed Up Honeys on Stereotypes of Young Urban
Womyn of Color 156
Spotlights: Tom Boellstorff on New Technologies and Activism 158
viii Contents
Essentials: Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy,
a Documentary 159
Spotlights: Michelle Téllez on Activism Through Storytelling in Visual Media 160
Essentials: Excerpt from the Introduction to Comparative Perspectives
on the Indigenous Rights Movement in Africa and the Americas by
Dorothy Hodgson 161
How Can Feminist Activist Ethnographers Reflect Upon Our Practice? 162
Spotlights: Jennifer Bickham Mendez on the Relevance of Activist-Scholarship 163
Conclusion 165
8 Thinking Through the Future of Feminist Ethnography:
Conversations with Feminist Ethnographers 167
Activating Activism 169
Envisioning the Possibilities of Feminist Ethnography 170
Glossary 173
Bibliography 175
Index 189
About the Authors 195
Acknowledgments
Many people have contributed to this book, so here is where we want to express
our gratitude. Feminist anthropologist, activist, and friend Sandi Morgen inspires
the acknowledgements for this project. We had several conversations with her as we
pursued work on this book that got us thinking deeply about the debts we owe to
academic friendships. She recalled finding herself explaining to baffled family and
friends how the academic friendships that she has built over the years—connecting for
20 minutes at conferences year after year, collaborating on panels, generating schol-
arship and activism—are essential to her well-being, as a scholar, but also as a per-
son. Likewise, the scholarly connections that have inspired and nurtured our scholarly,
activist, and personal journeys are many, and deeply valued.
Throughout our work on this book, collectively—as coauthors, coeditors, and
friends—and individually—as feminist ethnographers and activist-scholars—we have
been the recipients of tremendous support. During the production of this book, we
received ideas, critiques, and feedback from Ujju Aggarwal, Florence Babb, Elizabeth
Chin, LeeRay Costa, Nancy Grace, Faye Harrison, Dorothy Hodgson, Katie Holt,
Antoinette Jackson, Shannon King, Ellen Lewin, Laura Mauldin, Jennifer Nelson, and
David Valentine. We thank Wendi Schnaufer for starting us on the road to writing this
textbook. We are grateful to Leanne Silverman, Karie Simpson, and Jehanne Schweitzer
at Rowman and Littlefield, Anita Singh at Deanta Global, and Sherri Barnes at Moon-
light Indexing for helping us to bring it to fruition. We also thank Tine Davids and
Karin Willemse, who published a special issue in Women’s Studies International Forum
(2014) “Embodied Engagements: Feminist Ethnography at the Crossing Knowledge of
Production and Representation,” and conference attendees at the Queer Kinship and
Relationships Conference, held by the Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sci-
ences, Zalesie Mazury, Poland, especially Aspa Chalkidou, Ulrika Dahl, Ruth Preser,
Damien Riggs, Antu Sorainen, Agata Staniszińska, and Gracia Trujillo, for drawing our
attention to a range of exciting feminist ethnographic work outside of North America.
We are grateful for the enthusiasm we have received from so many supportive col-
leagues. We thank Rowman & Littlefield’s reviewers for their insightful comments and
helpful references: Ujju Aggarwal, Center for Place, Culture and Politics, The Graduate
Center, City University of New York (CUNY); Michelle Fine, The Graduate Center,
CUNY; Holly Hassel, University of Wisconsin-Marathon County; Martin F. Mana-
lansan IV, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and two anonymous reviewers.
The College of Wooster and Queen’s College, CUNY, our home institutions, both
granted us timely research leaves, during which we wrote the bulk of this text. The
Henry Luce III Fund for Distinguished Scholarship enabled us to travel and work
together to bring this manuscript to completion. During Fall 2014, both Dána-Ain
and Christa taught courses, Feminist Ethnographies and Ethnographic Research,
respectively, and in Spring 2015, Christa introduced portions of the textbook to David
McConnell’s “Contemporary Anthropological Theory.” Students in those classes con-
tributed immeasurably to both the content and the structure of this text. Some gave
constructive comments on early drafts of chapters, and Dána-Ain’s graduate students
conducted some of the interviews spotlighted in the text.
For their assistance with research and transcription, we would like to thank Jacob
Danko, Evangeline Smith, and Sara Tebeau from the College of Wooster. We also
appreciate the efforts of two research assistants, Brenna McCaffrey a doctoral student
in the anthropology program at the CUNY Graduate Center and Regina McCullough,
ix
