Toward a transnational feminist methodology of encounter

Abstract

In this article I discuss my experiences conducting fieldwork in Nicaragua over two summers as a starting point for thinking about a feminist methodology of encounters. A feminist methodology of encounters directs our attention to the ways in which research work consists of multiple, fragmented and complex encounters between experiencing subjects. In this article I suggest that a feminist methodology of encounters provides pedagogical insight into how researchers can be situated ‘between’ participants and sites of research. In particular, in my research it is not only an examination of ‘betweenness’ in that I am looking to the everyday uncertainties of encounters, but also that my work often became situated as ‘between’ hosts and volunteers. The problematic is to attend to the ways in which encounters are never fully accomplished or predetermined, but also that they happen between actors, as did both my research and the process of researching. This methodology attends to the important political dimensions of this ‘betweenness’.