[New post] Fake bombs, Albanian hip hop, storytelling, and orange juice: Journeys through ethnography.
thebscblog posted: " Bethany Schmidt Kate Herrity Jason Warr [From Kate] Not long having started my PhD I was nervous and unsure as I made my way into the Birmingham lecture theatre for the sec" The BSC Blog
[From Kate] Not long having started my PhD I was nervous and unsure as I made my way into the Birmingham lecture theatre for the second Crime and Control Ethnography Symposium in 2016. The first – 'Doing Ethnography on Crime and Control' – had taken place in Leicester a year before. I soon followed the event there to do my PhD, which was how I came to be awkwardly banging my knees as I stumbled towards a seat suitably near the back, amidst the rows of bolted-in chairs. New to this as I was, I nevertheless discerned the something different that remains the hallmark of these occasions. Initially, I mistook the warmth and informality for an indication that everyone else was far more familiar with one another than I. It soon became clearer that this was a mark of the event rather than the pre-existing relationships which spawned it. Honest reflection is encouraged, Chatham House Rule is rigorously operated, and supporting research students and early career academics is at its centre. This focus serves to remind all present of the reason we all neglect inboxes and brave early morning starts: to share ideas, to reflect on one another's work and practice, as well as offering open encouragement to those still finding their feet. While the specific flavour of the event is coloured by the hosting environment as well as the individuals leading, some aspects have remained in place from the beginning: short and informal presentations (slides discouraged), modest-sized numbers to better facilitate intimate discussion, and an emphasis on creativity and criticality.
I have since followed the event to Goldsmiths in London for the third in 2018 and Glasgow the year after for 'Recrafting Ethnography: Crime, Harm and Control in the 21st Century'. Taking on the mantle for a tentative return in 2022 felt laden with responsibility to those who had contributed to crafting these events with such care to sustain a determined vision. We were honoured nevertheless, and decided it was too great an opportunity to pass up which was how Bethany, Jason and I came to host the fifth annual gathering which we titled, 'Foregrounding the Senses in Ethnographies of Crime, Harm, and Social Control' held at King's College, Cambridge. Funding bids, publication material, programmes, and e-mail lists are passed along to each new organising group as accumulated knowledge of past events gathers and new relationships and associations form. We shall be adding ours to the collection and are excited to see where this goes next as well as to contribute to its evolution.
[From all of us] As noted, these Ethnographies of Crime and Control Symposia tend to take on the thematic flavours of those organisers, and their organisations. In previous iterations the supportive sessions have focused on conversations about the complexity of ethics, entering the field, capturing the field (the How To of ethnography as it were), and thinking through how an ethnographic sensibility can deepen our criminological imagination. This year was no different. However, shadowed by the spectre of the SARS-Cov2(v)/COVID-19 pandemic, which led to many suspensions, separations, and innovations two themes came to dominate. These were Proximity and Distance, and Emotional (and Emotive) Labour. Of particular importance was how these issues related to the theme of the conference – the sensory. It became evident that the accounting for the sensory, and the absence of such, in a changed ethnographic field presented all with unique challenges and, subsequently, novel mechanisms of resolution. These considerations, within a supportive and involved environment, gave many of the early career academics a much-expanded understanding of ethnography as a tool of enquiry.
Even with the late announcement of the public holiday (on the 19th) due to the passing of the Queen, we had just over 40 international and interdiscplinary ethnographers attend in person and around 15 people online. Most attendees were PhD students or early career researchers, with a few being more senior academics or professionals in related fields. This blend was our intention. As with previous symposia, our event was organised as a kind of unconference: in place of hierarchical, formal arrangements we prioritised informal, participant-led plenaries and activities designed to facilitate honest, open, and safe discussions about the art and craft of ethnographic fieldwork. It worked! We received fantastic feedback from attendees which spoke to the supportive and invigorating 'vibe' of the event, like the student quoted below:
'Thank you for organising such an invigorating, insightful and creative conference. Just being part of such important discussions helps reinstate my faith in criminology as a discipline and makes me reflect on the potential of the sensory to disrupt conventional assumptions of doing and conducting research.'
We had two brilliant keynote speakers, Drs Joy White and Johnny Ilan, who opened each day with excellent presentations related to their respective work studying the role of music in the lives of young Black men. Their sensitive provocations contributed to subsequent discussions around ethnographic proximity (how close is too close? or, are we close enough?), researcher identities, disclosure, and ethical witnessing. They also opened the forum up to methodological explorations – from city mapping to digital deep dives, music elicitation to objects behaving badly, from cars and their emotional geographies to the use of memories as data, as well as capturing the sights and sounds of social class and hidden harms, to name just a few. A distinctive feature of this symposium – and part of its DNA – is the feeling of release from 'conventional' research(er) constraints. Some of us have come from disciplines, departments, or working worlds that restrict or limit our ethnographic imaginations. We were impressed by the creativity, bravery, and ingenuity of our panellists and their work.
Participants brought photos, sounds, various recordings, objects, and in one session, a phone call from a man on death row in the US who contributed to the live conversation, to their presentations. For many, this syle of engagement was refreshing and a welcome departure from more traditional academic conferences.
In addition to foregrounding the senses, our other local flavour came from two Cambridge-based walking activities that sought to shift ethnographic perspectives by exploring places, spaces, and histories. On day one a historian traced the River Cam's chronology – from its harnessing to establish the city as a water transport hub to, over the centuries, how it has been coopted and privatised as a spatial boundary by the University to control its use, and create a barrier to exclude the city's residents. For day two, an archivist from King's led us on an informative and reflective tour focused on the College's role and reckoning with its legacies of enslavement.
The three of us have relished in the opportunity to host this invaluable event, but we are now ready to pass the baton to the next organisers. We maintain our belief that this ongoing symposium plays a vital and sustainable role in British criminology, as it continues to support and shape emerging researchers in the UK and beyond.
In addition to the BSC, we are grateful to the other funders who helped financially support this event: the Cambridge University Postdoc Academy and the Mellon Foundation. Many thanks are owed to these funders for enabling the event to happen, and to our participants for making the symposium a success.
About the authors
Dr Bethany Schmidt is Lecturer in Penology in the Prisons Research Centre, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge @BethanyESchmidt bs455@cam.ac.uk
Dr Kate Herrity is the Mellon-Kings Junior Research Fellow in Punishment at the University of Cambridge @KateHerrity
Dr Jason Warr is Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice, School of Applied Social Sciences, De Montfort University. @WarrCriminology Jason.warr@dmu.ac.uk
This article gives the views of the authors, not the position of the British Society of Criminology or the institution they work for.
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