Midlands Hub: Feeling the Field - Online (6/6/23) and In-Person (Birmingham) (9/6/23)

The British Academy Early Career Researcher Network brings together ECRs across the humanities and social sciences disciplines, regardless of their funding source or background.

PLEASE NOTE: THE BRITISH ACADEMY HAS PAID FOR THE VENUE AND CATERING COSTS FOR THIS EVENT TO TAKE PLACE . IF YOU SIGN UP AND CAN NO LONGER ATTEND LET US KNOW BY EMAILING ecr_network@thebritishacademy.ac.uk AND YOUR TICKET CAN BE OFFERED TO ANOTHER NETWORK MEMBER.

Feeling the Field

This is a two day event. If you sign-up for a ticket for Tuesday 6th June, you are also committing to attend the second-part of the event which takes place in person on Friday 9th June from 10:00 AM to 16:00 PM.

DAY 1: On 6 June, the event will have an online preparation workshop (14:30-16:00) to delve into concepts and theories around fieldwork and body mapping method. Held on Zoom.

DAY 2: On 9 June, there will be an in-person workshop (10:00-16:00), where researchers will implement that technique guided by the artist and the collective in order to explore emotions and embodiment during data collection. Event location at The Exchange, Birmingham.

Feeling the Field project develops a series of online and in-person workshops that delve into the connections between bodies and research to explore how researchers navigate the ubiquitous risk of violence in the field. Although conversations around emotions, well-being, and fieldwork are common within close circles of confidants, academic institutions largely have not recognised this on a policy level. There are risks of continued institutional inaction in terms of human rights, occupational health and safety, and equity, diversity, and inclusion.

The workshops will use an artistic and geographical method known as cuerpo territorio, or body-mapping. This method, which is based on Latin-American feminist decolonial theory, will enable researchers working across disciplines in field sites around the world to reflect on the emotions they experience whilst collecting data. The research questions interrogate what the ‘field’ entails; how, when, and where researchers live the field as an emotional space and how all of this impacts their research practice and well-being. Addressing these topics will ensure that researchers are safe and productive going forward in their work.

This event will be run by Feeling the Field Colectiva which is part of the Network of Women Doing Fieldwork and Joyce Treasure. The colectiva is an art and geography collective interested in a decolonial understanding of emotions and embodiment in the field. Furthermore, Joyce Treasure is a multi-disciplinary artist based in London. She uses a combination of politics, self-care, and the carnivalesque to explore marginalisation in contemporary Britain through a black feminist lens. For queries and suggestions, please contact t.pijnaker@bham.ac.uk.

Online Workshop

“What the field is, how, when and where we feel the field during our research process, and what its impact is on our research practice.”

Reflection: Why personal archive? What in our data collection constitutes an archive?

14.30 - 14.40 Introductions.

14.40 - 15.05 Warm-up.

15.05 - 15.25 What constitutes an archive? What in our data collection constitutes an archive?

15.25 - 15.30 Break.

15.30 - 15.55 Speculative writing exercise.

15.55 - 16.00 Closing and indications for in real life (IRL) workshop, 9 June.

In Person Workshop (The Exchange, University of Birmingham)

Art materials will be supplied but please bring to the IRL workshop an object from your home/work space/ fieldwork/fieldsite, a short piece of writing from your fieldwork, and a notebook to act as a personal journal for both online and IRL. The object can be papers, smells, magazines, textures/textiles, music, recycled/reusable materials - we might think about personal materials we don’t mind painting onto, decorating, etc in consideration of “Assemblage Art”.

10.00 - 10.15 Tea and Introductions .

10.15 - 10.25 Breathing.

10.25 - 11.50 Body mapping and Personal Archive

11.50 - 12.00 Tea break

12.00 - 12 .15 Audre Lorde: The Erotic as Power.

12.15 - 12.25 Body clay exercise.

12.25 - 12.30 Reflective writing.

Introduction to assemblage and how to assemblage

12.30 - 12.35 Museum of Contemporary Art - Assemblage.

12.35 - 13.00 Work on assemblage.

13.00 - 14.00 Lunch break

After lunch continue assemblage workshop

14.00 - 14.30 Work on assemblage.

14.30 - 15. 00 Reflect on work.

15.00 - 15.05 Cacophony exercise.

15.05 - 15.30 Photograph work.

15.30 - 15.50 Beyond the workshop and summarise.

15.50 - 16.00 Wind down exercise. End session.

Image: the ECRN banner with an ECR in the foreground

Event Organiser: Ana Laura Zavala Guillen; British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Queen Mary University of London and ECRN Member.

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