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University of California Press

About the Book

Rebecca Hanson is Assistant Professor in the Center of Latin American Studies and the Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law at the University of Florida. 


Patricia Richards is Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at the University of Georgia. She is the author of Pobladoras, Indígenas, and the State: Conflicts over Women’s Rights in Chile and Race and the Chilean Miracle: Neoliberalism, Democracy, and Indigenous Rights.

About the Author

and Ethnographic Research

Table of Contents

"A groundbreaking contribution and a long overdue publication about the deafening sexual silence surrounding the fieldwork experiences of many women scholars conducting qualitative research in sociology."—Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez, author of Family Secrets: Stories of Incest and Sexual Violence in Mexico

"A novel and important contribution to qualitative methodology that will ignite good discussions not only in classrooms but in larger academic settings as a whole."—Junmin Wang, author of State-Market Interactions in China’s Reform Era: Local State Competition and Global Market Building in the Tobacco Industry

Reviews

"Harassed is an important, insightful text that should become a staple for research methods classes in anthropology, sociology, and women’s and gender studies. . . . This is a must-read for anyone conducting or supervising ethnographic research. . . . Highly recommended."
CHOICE
"One of this book’s major contributions is to lay bare the gendered character of ethnography as practical endeavor and intellectual pursuit. Interview extracts vividly convey how prevailing conventions create pernicious traps and impossible binds for female researchers, for whom the very act of entering a field site alone and unknown frequently contravenes prescribed norms of feminine conduct and so renders them vulnerable to overtures and advances. . . . While positioned as a challenge to institutional silence, Harassed could instead be seen as throwing down the gauntlet, providing a comprehensive appraisal of the problem and setting out clear-headed proposals for change."
Times Higher Education

"When my friends and I faced gendered issues during fieldwork, we viewed it as an anomalous problem to manage as best we could. Hanson and Richards move beyond individual-level suggestions on how to handle risks; they challenge academic assumptions about the very nature of ethnography. Their vision of an embodied ethnography should inform ongoing conversations about how we produce knowledge as well as how to appropriately train and support our students and colleagues."

Social Forces
"Harassed should be required reading for any class on ethnography or in-depth interviewing, for any researcher conducting ethnography or interviews, and for any faculty member who is advising students conducting such work. Armed with this book, researchers will not only be better able to protect themselves but they will also gain a model for how to learn and teach from their own embodied experiences in the field."
Gender & Society

"Harassed should be required reading for any class on ethnography or in-depth interviewing, for any researcher conducting ethnography or interviews, and for any faculty member who is advising students conducting such work. Armed with this book, researchers will not only be better able to protect themselves but they will also gain a model for how to learn and teach from their own embodied experiences in the field."

Gender & Society

"The book is an essential read for any student and/or researcher using and/or teaching ethnography as a methodology, as it is a much-needed point of departure for a discussion about the roles of our bodies, gender, and sexuality in our interactions with other people and in the construction of ethnographic knowledge. Moreover, it is an essential read for anyone engaged in international development research as it complements calls within the wider research governance framework for increased safeguarding, accountability, and transparency."

Anthropology in Action
"A groundbreaking contribution and a long overdue publication about the deafening sexual silence surrounding the fieldwork experiences of many women scholars conducting qualitative research in sociology."—Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez, author of Family Secrets: Stories of Incest and Sexual Violence in Mexico

"A novel and important contribution to qualitative methodology that will ignite good discussions not only in classrooms but in larger academic settings as a whole."—Junmin Wang, author of State-Market Interactions in China’s Reform Era: Local State Competition and Global Market Building in the Tobacco Industry