A pre-fieldwork workshop for Humanities and Social Science students.

Wednesday- Thursday 27-28^th June

9:30am -4:30pm

‘Navigating the Field’ is a two-day intensive workshop for post-graduate students in humanities disciplines whose research is structured around long periods of fieldwork. The aim of the workshop is the help students prepare for their own fieldwork by leading them through a set of structured readings, discussions and activities that allow them to consider: (a) their unique field site, (b) their positional location in relation to the field, (c) issues of power and structural violence both in the field and the academy, and, (d) how to move towards the field, with awareness. Run by Dr. Siobhan McDonnell and Dr. Annie McCarthy, and with input from Dr. Darja Hoenigman, this workshop will draw on the experience of academics from across the ANU who have undertaken long periods of field work in a range of locations.

The development of this workshop has been initiated, in part, by the recognition of the scale of sexual assault and harassment both in the academy, and in ‘the field’. However, rather than position the field as a site of ‘violence’ we seek to consider how scholars undertaking field work can be positioned in relation to the structural violence of the academy and the power asymmetries that can be present in ‘the field’.

Places in this workshop are strictly limited. To sign up for this workshop, please send an email to  annie.mccarthy@anu.edu.au by the 15^th of June, with short answers to the following questions. Your answer to these questions will help us tailor the workshop to your needs.

1. My research explores….?
2. The field site I will be working in is…?
3. My concerns about going to the field— related to the field itself and my own positionality­— that I’m hoping this workshop can help me explore, are….?