Translating, Constructing, Failing: Using Patchwork and Scavenger Methodologies to Understand...

Using multiple modes of research, analysis and dissemination is not new in many worlds, but rather has been the preferred mode of action in advocacy, activism, art and journalism to name a few. In some contexts, it is often the only way to research given researchers live with disabilities, come from violent subjectivities and occupy marginalised spaces as they learn to navigate an otherwise class, caste and racially skewed academic structure (see Gunel et al.’s Patchwork Ethnography, and Halberstam’s Scavenger Methodologies, for examples).  

In the social sciences however, “multimodalities” are increasingly becoming an interesting playing field for social scientists looking to reach a variety of audiences while wanting to be reflective in their own practice as producers and displayers of knowledge. Speaking about diversifying how we do research is even more important today, as researcher-interlocutors and the worlds around them go from one crisis to another with no gap in between. Crisis situations moreover, require dynamic, creative methods to record, research, translate and share stories from the field, and with interlocutors. This seminar will travel through multimodalities to access and translate stories across India, the UK and Japan where I have worked with sex workers’ networks, trans and queer communities using participatory, ethnographic, digital methods along with art, illustration, creative nonfiction, poetry and design to tell engaging stories not just for the world, but for ourselves.