Helen Creswick
“He did not see me as a woman, he saw me as a prostitute.” The Emotional Journey of Researching Domestic Violence.
Researching domestic violence is a challenging process. The researcher must be aware of both the emotions of their participants to ensure that they are not harmed by relaying details of traumatic experiences; and indeed they must be careful to manage their own emotions when hearing distressing accounts of such abuse.
My own research involves interviewing women who overstay their visas and experience domestic abuse. Using extracts from my empirical research, I will reflect on the emotive data gathered so far and the strategies which I have adopted to ensure that the emotional wellbeing of participants remains paramount. Indeed, it is vital that participants are not re-traumatised from sharing their experiences and it is important that I remain attuned to signs of emotional distress and be able to respond appropriately.
In addition to being sensitised to the emotional wellbeing of participants, accounts of domestic violence and abuse, like the one above, suggest that there is a need to be aware of my own emotions during fieldwork in hearing such distressing accounts. This paper will discuss both how I managed the dilemmas of conducting emotional research, and the strategies which I use to preserve my own emotional wellbeing during fieldwork.
Anders Wallace
PERMEABLE SELVES: AFFECT, SEDUCTION, AND APPRENTICING TO HETEROSEXUAL MASCULINITY IN NEW YORK CITY
From internet dating to the rise of going solo, transient intimacies amidst new forms of choosing gender have thrown into question historical taboos on masculine sexual inhibition in the formation of personality. This paper examines the role of emotional labor in remediating experiences of identity and sexual intimacy among heterosexual men in “seduction communities”: charm schools which train men to attract women. Considering how men in seduction communities construct and enact symbolic boundaries in their performances of seduction, this paper asks: What forms of community, solidarity, and intimacy among men does the affective labor of seduction skills create? Men report that practicing seduction techniques transforms their sense of embodiment, experiencing states of altered consciousness or “flow” that can even lead to feelings of addiction to performing seduction routines. Reflecting on the pitfalls of seduction as an exclusionary form of inclusion in the neoliberal city, this paper will present ethnographic evidence (from fieldwork carried out in New York City) of the ways in which power, vulnerability, and intimacy in affective labor among pickup artists can generate states of cognitive absorption; emotional ambivalence; and affective license and inhibition in these men’s embodiments of masculinity. I will argue that these performances, and the “homo-social” (Sedgwick 1985) relationships men form with other men in seduction communities, acts to revitalize an American ethics of self-discipline for men in precarious social and economic circumstances. At the same time, this presents fractures and opportunities for progressive politics around the cultural values of maleness in the United States.
Catherine Vulliamy
‘Cultural Patchworking’: Creative Methodologies in Research on Love
Andrew Beatty urges that, while it is clear that there are “shared experiences or patterns of emotion that are culturally typical”, these do not contradict the unique, individual experience of emotion, “the individuality of the experiencing self” (2013:419). This paper will discuss some of the ways in which my doctoral research seeks to explore both this ‘experiencing self’, and the cultural context in which emotional experience occurs.
In my work on the relationship between love and sexuality, I have used a combination of more traditional qualitative interviews and small group discussions alongside more creative methodological tools. These have included participatory visual and textual collages, creative reflexive journals, a musical ‘mix tape’ and the sharing of ‘objects’ to explore individuals’ experiences of love, desire and sexuality and the relationships between them.
I argue that these creative approaches to studying emotional and bodily experience allow new entry points into conversations about potentially difficult, intimate, and abstract issues. Simultaneously, methodologies like these can help to produce a dynamic account of personal and interpersonal experiences of, and relationships to love, desire and sexuality, that is both uniquely personal and culturally situated.
Drawing from some of the data generated with my participants, I am to demonstrate the ways in which these methodologies can produce a richly textured and multi-dimensional picture of the lived experience of love and desire.
“He did not see me as a woman, he saw me as a prostitute.” The Emotional Journey of Researching Domestic Violence.
Researching domestic violence is a challenging process. The researcher must be aware of both the emotions of their participants to ensure that they are not harmed by relaying details of traumatic experiences; and indeed they must be careful to manage their own emotions when hearing distressing accounts of such abuse.
My own research involves interviewing women who overstay their visas and experience domestic abuse. Using extracts from my empirical research, I will reflect on the emotive data gathered so far and the strategies which I have adopted to ensure that the emotional wellbeing of participants remains paramount. Indeed, it is vital that participants are not re-traumatised from sharing their experiences and it is important that I remain attuned to signs of emotional distress and be able to respond appropriately.
In addition to being sensitised to the emotional wellbeing of participants, accounts of domestic violence and abuse, like the one above, suggest that there is a need to be aware of my own emotions during fieldwork in hearing such distressing accounts. This paper will discuss both how I managed the dilemmas of conducting emotional research, and the strategies which I use to preserve my own emotional wellbeing during fieldwork.
Anders Wallace
PERMEABLE SELVES: AFFECT, SEDUCTION, AND APPRENTICING TO HETEROSEXUAL MASCULINITY IN NEW YORK CITY
From internet dating to the rise of going solo, transient intimacies amidst new forms of choosing gender have thrown into question historical taboos on masculine sexual inhibition in the formation of personality. This paper examines the role of emotional labor in remediating experiences of identity and sexual intimacy among heterosexual men in “seduction communities”: charm schools which train men to attract women. Considering how men in seduction communities construct and enact symbolic boundaries in their performances of seduction, this paper asks: What forms of community, solidarity, and intimacy among men does the affective labor of seduction skills create? Men report that practicing seduction techniques transforms their sense of embodiment, experiencing states of altered consciousness or “flow” that can even lead to feelings of addiction to performing seduction routines. Reflecting on the pitfalls of seduction as an exclusionary form of inclusion in the neoliberal city, this paper will present ethnographic evidence (from fieldwork carried out in New York City) of the ways in which power, vulnerability, and intimacy in affective labor among pickup artists can generate states of cognitive absorption; emotional ambivalence; and affective license and inhibition in these men’s embodiments of masculinity. I will argue that these performances, and the “homo-social” (Sedgwick 1985) relationships men form with other men in seduction communities, acts to revitalize an American ethics of self-discipline for men in precarious social and economic circumstances. At the same time, this presents fractures and opportunities for progressive politics around the cultural values of maleness in the United States.
Catherine Vulliamy
‘Cultural Patchworking’: Creative Methodologies in Research on Love
Andrew Beatty urges that, while it is clear that there are “shared experiences or patterns of emotion that are culturally typical”, these do not contradict the unique, individual experience of emotion, “the individuality of the experiencing self” (2013:419). This paper will discuss some of the ways in which my doctoral research seeks to explore both this ‘experiencing self’, and the cultural context in which emotional experience occurs.
In my work on the relationship between love and sexuality, I have used a combination of more traditional qualitative interviews and small group discussions alongside more creative methodological tools. These have included participatory visual and textual collages, creative reflexive journals, a musical ‘mix tape’ and the sharing of ‘objects’ to explore individuals’ experiences of love, desire and sexuality and the relationships between them.
I argue that these creative approaches to studying emotional and bodily experience allow new entry points into conversations about potentially difficult, intimate, and abstract issues. Simultaneously, methodologies like these can help to produce a dynamic account of personal and interpersonal experiences of, and relationships to love, desire and sexuality, that is both uniquely personal and culturally situated.
Drawing from some of the data generated with my participants, I am to demonstrate the ways in which these methodologies can produce a richly textured and multi-dimensional picture of the lived experience of love and desire.