Ethnographic vulnerabilities: a reflexive workshop on embodied and intersectional approaches

September 2025 (1 day)

Dr. Federica Moretti, UNIL

Amanda Jousset, UNINE

Noalie Osman, UNIFR

2 speakers, NN 

This workshop focuses on the vulnerabilities experienced by the researchers/PhD students during their research and examines how these are connected to both solidarity and discrimination within academia. Both early-career and more established ethnographers encounter various forms of vulnerability throughout their research, particularly during fieldwork and at different stages of the research process. However, the acknowledgements and sharing experiences related to these vulnerabilities remain taboo in academia, and concerns about safety and situated vulnerabilities often go unaddressed by universities and institutions, which tend to focus primarily on the risks faced by research participants.

This workshop starts from the concerns, tensions and complex situations researchers are confronted with – such as differences in interactions during research linked to gender, race, class, and ability – from both embodied and intersectional perspectives. The participants will be invited to consider the role of the academic context in recognizing these various forms of vulnerability. Subsequently, they will develop practical strategies tailored to their specific situations for managing upcoming fieldwork and addressing challenging research experiences. The workshop puts the ethnographers at the center of the reflection: what are the material, relational, and institutional possibilities and obstacles in the process of conducting ethnographic research? In so doing, it aims at reflecting on different ways of framing and experiencing vulnerabilities. These can go from trauma, cultural choc, cumulative stress, sexual harassment, physical harm, accidents, outbreak of conflicts, environmental catastrophes, to access to health institutions and doing fieldwork accompanied by the researcher's family. 

Rather than viewing vulnerability solely as a risk, we will explore it through the lens of the ethics of care (Tronto 2012). How can anthropologists support each other and their research participants to ensure the quality of research through mutual care?

Lausanne (to be confirmed)

Participation fee: CHF 60 

For students of the CUSO universities (Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel and Fribourg) and from the universities of Bern, Zürich, Luzern, Basel and St. Gallen, accommodation and meals are organised and covered by the CUSO doctoral program in anthropology. 

Travel expenses will be reimbursed via MyCUSO based on half-fare train ticket (2nd class) from the student's university to the place of the activity.

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