May 30, 2024 By Hande Gür
YouAlberta is written by students for students.
Hande (she/her) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology, focusing on anthropology of religion, gender and the Middle East. Passionate about ethnographic research and sharing her stories and those of her interlocutors, Hande is the winner of the 2023 Images of Research and the co-editor-in-chief of Compass: The Student Anthropology Journal of Alberta.
Last year, I travelled to Türkiye, my country of origin, for my doctoral research project, which is an ethnographic study of the rise of Sufi—or mystical Islamic—practices among primarily young, middle-class women of Turkish origin. My research in the region began in 2016 and evolved into my dissertation project when I encountered a young woman in a small Sufi lodge in Konya, Türkiye. She was performing Sema (whirling ceremony) in a colourful felt vest, a silk headscarf that did not cover her hair and skinny jeans. Her story of adherence to Sufism as a modern young woman revealed a “search for something to hold on to.”
My retelling of this encounter highlights how storytelling is both a subject and a method in anthropology and in research. Essentially, as anthropologists, we observe, interpret and narrate experiences. I often use stories to communicate my research. For example, I like to start my writing with a personal story explaining why I am conducting the study or talk about an observation from the field that highlights the importance of the topic. I also find it effective to use stories when discussing theoretical concepts because sharing a story that illustrates the idea is more impactful than a definition.
The approach to audiovisual materials in research has undergone significant transformation over time, evolving from being often overlooked to now being recognized as more integral to research, with researchers increasingly embracing media tools and methods to enrich their studies and enhance communication.
Anthropological endeavours in this area, known as visual anthropology, have two main aims. The first is generating anthropological media, such as films, photographs and drawings. The second is to understand anthropological issues through these media forms. I believe this approach might also apply to different disciplines since it suggests that sounds and images could be an inseparable part of the research process through various practices, capturing crucial moments where verbal descriptions fail to communicate them.
On the one hand, some scholars suggest that audiovisual practices can be part of the story, analysis and interpretation in a study, which means that making and using images in research can be analytical and critical, leading to images that are more than illustrations. I think of it as a picture book instead of a book with pictures. Such an understanding would inevitably shift and expand how we communicate and translate research knowledge. Needless to say, words and images can and often do work together, as in my work, where I share photos and videos from my fieldwork as part of my narrative. Yet, in this perspective, images could also have a narrative of their own.
On the other hand, images in research raise questions about authorship and power. This is especially true if researchers are taking and using materials from the field or a community. So, the audiovisual practices and many researchers in this field call forth accountable methods and self-reflexivity. As researchers, we need to recognize our presence within our research and reflect on our processes, exploring ways to conduct research that is both more comprehensive and ethical through the use of images and sounds. Could we employ collaborative methods to create them? Could we return images and knowledge to the communities involved in our research? How could these practices help us to critique existing knowledge hierarchies while communicating our research?
For me, images can clarify narratives, humanize experiences and work as a way to bridge gaps and transcend linguistic barriers. This is especially important if communicating your research outside of academia and with the community is important to you.
YouAlberta