Tuesday 8 September 2009

Arrival Narratives

Today was my first day of work, which is also the first day of fieldwork for my PhD. It struck me that most field notebooks start with some kind of arrival narrative where the ethnographer is lonely or ill or disoriented, while I arrived and received my new email address, a code for the bathroom, and directions to the office coffeemaker. It also made me remember how much I missed being involved in queer activism, and made me realize that there might really be something to this whole studying up approach. When your biggest dilemma on your first day is that you could only find a vegetable sandwich at Subway for lunch, you are probably not doing so bad.

2 comments:

abby.sugar said...

I'm back in NYC (arrival: 10 am Tuesday morning. Classes: 1 pm Tuesday afternoon. Success factor? I didn't fall asleep...)

Sooooo...when can I see you??? AND my apartment is AWESOME. for the record.

I'm also in post-Burning Man euphoria. Stories from me and advice from you needed. Asap.

And, when can we get together with Emma too??? x

Anonymous said...

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