Being a Researcher-Activist? Contemplations on Ethnographic Methodologies

Researchers who use ethnographic methodologies are often confronted with many questions, especially for those who also understand themselves as activists in the field they are researching. Does my own positionality within my research mean I am ‘influencing’ my ‘outcomes’? How does my activism within the general field of research affect my research? What steps can be taken to guarantee the security of my interlocutors but also myself? Are there ways I can detach myself from the field and acquire a viewpoint from the “outside”? These were the questions I asked myself throughout my field research with members of the organization of Egyptian Revolutionary Socialists. Contemplating my own situatedness as someone who is not detached from her field (I am not neutral on questions of exile, military dictatorships or imprisonment), these are the questions I had to grapple with throughout my 18 months of field research.

In the past, researchers of color have often been accused of not being “objective” if they conduct research on fields that are “close to home.” Based on my own experiences as a researcher who is not politically detached from her fieldwork, I argue that notions of "objectivity" in the field are not only not attainable but a farce. Rather, I argue that researchers should attempt to methodologically scrutinize their own situatedness while taking their interlocutors seriously, beyond a researcher / activist divide. This enables poignant research that does not attempt to brush over difficult questions but rather critically engages with questions of being (politically) involved in one's field.