Yael Navarro (University of Cambridge) "Fieldnotes, Library Scans and the Ethnographic Narrative After Catastrophe"

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Abstract: In this seminar, I will give an account of my return to my field notebooks and library materials on Antakya, Turkey, after the city’s complete destruction with the earthquakes of 6 and 20 February, 2023. How do fieldnotes read after catastrophe? What temporal framework and narrative structure might one adopt when the context for one’s research has been thrown into complete disarray? Or how does one write ethnography post-catastrophe? Delving into excerpts from my fieldnotes and scans from my library research in Antakya, I conceptually unpack the challenges of writing after catastrophe in its ongoing unfolding. Yael Navarro is Professor of Social, Political and Psychological Anthropology at the University of Cambridge