In this workshop, participants will learn about sensory research methods and what they can do for and in ethnographic research. The “sensory turn” in anthropology and other social sciences has resulted in fuller and richer accounts of daily life. In this workshop we will discuss why these accounts are especially important in the context of disability and deaf studies research. Participants will practice writing sensory journals, conducting ethnographic fieldnotes in “sensorial ways,” and they will consider the opportunities and constraints of focusing on the sensory. We will ask : “What make sensory research sensory research?” We will devote time to thinking about questions of sensory access and what to do in situations in which we might not have access to people and places. How do we account for and write about this in research?
Bio: Dr. Michele Friedner
Michele Friedner is a medical anthropologist who also works with and in the fields of disability studies, sensory studies, deaf studies, and south Asian studies. She is a professor and current chair in the department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. Most of her research has been conducted in India with deaf and disabled people as they work to build inhabitable worlds for themselves and others both in the present and the future. Michele likes jogging slowly and is currently really excited about lafufus (and not labubus).