dealing with difficult/traumatic research

[Ignasi Clemente]

Hi Lynnette,

I highly recommend

Bluebond-Langner, M. (1978). Doing the Fieldwork:  A Personal Account.  The Private Worlds of Dying Children (pp. 236-255). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

In my dissertation, I also discussed the logistic and emotional complexities of conducting participant observation and videotaping children with cancer and dying children.  

Clemente, I. (2005). Negotiating the Limits of Uncertainty and Non-Disclosure: Communication and Culture in the Management of Pediatric Cancer Treatment in Barcelona.  Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Department of Anthropology. Los Angeles: University of California.

Another volume that I would recommend is 
Kleinman, A., Das, V., & Lock, M. M. (Eds.) (1997). Social Suffering. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

In particular, the Kleimans have a very insightful chapter on Kevin Carter entitled "The Appeal of Experience; The Dismay of Images: Cultural Appropriations of Suffering in Our times.  Kevin Carter,  a Pulitzer Prize awardee,  killed himself after taking a photograph for the New York Times in 1994. Once you see the picture, you will recognize it immediately: a vulture perches near a little girl in the Sudan who has collapsed from hunger, a picture that became an icon of starvation

The literature on violence and trauma is quite extensive.  If I think of something else, I'll let you know.



Ignasi







On Oct 6, 2011, at 3:48 PM, Lynnette Arnold wrote:

> Dear fellow researchers –
> 
> I have recently begun a long-term transnational research project,
> working with undocumented migrants from El Salvador and their families
> (folks I met when I lived in their home village for a number of
> years). As I get deeper into the project, I have come to realize that
> working with such difficult subject matter, often involving
> experiences of violence and trauma, requires active management on the
> part of the researcher for long-term personal sustainability.
> 
> So I am looking for any resources (books, articles, listservs, groups,
> etc.) that you have found helpful in dealing with difficult research
> topics. Insights and strategies for any stage of the research process,
> from fieldwork to data transcription and analysis, would be most
> welcome, and I am especially interested in cases where researchers
> maintain ongoing relationships with the participants and their
> communities.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> -- 
> Lynnette Arnold
> Graduate Student
> Department of Linguistics
> University of California Santa Barbara
> http://uweb.ucsb.edu/~lynnettearnold/