Please find below (and attached) the second Call for Papers for an upcoming interdisciplinary symposium on "Trespassing in Fieldwork" to be held at St. Hilda's College, Oxford University on June 3rd 2014. This is sponsored by the "Technological Natures: Materialities, Mobilities, Politics" research cluster, School of Geography and the Environment, and organized by Dr. Peter Wynn Kirby.
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to Dr. Peter Wynn Kirby (
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Trespassing in Fieldwork: An Interdisciplinary Symposium
trespass, v.
Intr. to transgress, offend. Trans. to pass beyond some limit; to encroach, intrude on or upon.
1805 Wordsworth Waggoner i. 112 I trespassed lately worse than ever.
Whether hopping a fence to take photographs or ducking under a rope to approach potential informants, even ethically-moored ethnographers and others can find it necessary (or at least tempting) to trespass during fieldwork. Even if ultimately rejected as a research strategy, trespassing comprises a methodological Rubicon that is more deserving of debate than is commonly achieved in institutions concerned with imperatives of risk assessment and ethical clearance.
This symposium will include presentations from 1) a TRAFFIC wildlife biologist who has spent many years conducting undercover research in illicit Southeast Asian markets that trade in tiger parts, ivory, and live endangered species; 2) an urban geographer who has built a career out of infiltrating zones declared off-limits to the public; and 3) two ethnographers who must slip past vigilant gangs and bent police in a smuggling and scavenging community in China in order to (ethically) interview informants engaged in illegal work there.
Trespassing, of course, frequently lies in the eye of the beholder. When is trespassing permissible? Can frank analysis of trespassing update and refurbish the ethical armature of academic field research? This call goes out to other researchers with complementary experiences who are willing to help chart the discursive and deontological boundaries of ethical conduct in the field.
