[Anthropgrad] Seminar - Mothers' economic work in China

[Pen Judd]

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY SEMINAR SERIES

Monday, 2 March, 2009
3.30pm–5.00 pm
Seminar Room C – Coombs Building

*Maternal feminism in the field: moving forward with a little data and a 
lot of experience

Kelly Dombroski
PhD Candidate
Department of Human Geography*

In this seminar I reflect on how the rich experience of maternal 
feminist fieldwork with a child in the field changed my PhD thesis 
direction and led to greater experimentation with alternative 
qualitative methodologies.

In 2007, I conducted fieldwork amongst Hui, Han and Tibetan mothers of 
the ancient silk-road city of Xining, China. Despite historically being 
a regional centre of trade and culture, these days Xining is something 
of an 'out of the way' place, its modernity labelled 'backward' and its 
traditions labelled 'feudal'. Influenced by maternal feminism and 
post-development approaches, I attempted to challenge these dismissive 
labels by mapping the economic diversity of mothers' work particularly 
amongst the Hui people. However, being a mother in the field was both 
bane and boon: the richness of experiencing alternative mothering spaces 
and practices contrasted with difficulties in collecting mothers' 
life-history narratives and the specifics of their economic activities.

In this seminar I will present some preliminary findings on mothers' 
economic work in Xining, reflect on the ways my somewhat difficult field 
experience helped me to innovate in my research design and methodology, 
then outline my plans for an upcoming return visit where I will focus on 
the economic significance of practices and spaces of mothering using 
visual, narrative, and autoethnographic methodologies.


-- 
Penelope Judd
Assistant Administrator
Department of Anthropology
Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies
College of Asia and the Pacific
Australian National University, Canberra
Tel:   intl + 61 + 2 + 61253149
Fax:   intl + 61 + 2 + 61253023
Email: Penelope.Judd at anu.edu.au
Cricos Provider #00120C