Notes at a Conference, CEAD 2010

Abstract

This article uses a conference attendee’s self-reflections, in the form of autoethnographic extracts from a personal journal and poetic responses to conference presentations, as devices to traverse the liminal space that exists between presenters and their audience, ethnographic researchers and their research participants, and the intrapersonal dimensions of the writer. In so doing the tensions that typify cross-cultural communication are made visible. These tensions underscore the politics of betwixt and between, and this concept of liminality assists us in seeing and experiencing these tensions and underlying power relationships that may otherwise be left unexplored. Between all people is a liminal space where two distinct entities are in the process of (re)negotiating their relationship. This interface is a place of power struggle and political intrigue. Liminality exists between all cultures and between all people within cultures, and arguably, within each of us. These “notes at a conference” reflect on these liminal spaces so that ethical cross-cultural ethnographic research can be collaboratively negotiated.