GAA Working Group „Family in the Field” & Handbook Project “Accompanied Fieldwork in Anthropology”

GAA working group „family in the field”

A growing and increasingly diverse number of anthropologists no longer approach fieldwork as ‘lone researcher’; they consider family ties and care duties and recognize their significant role in how ethnographic research is conducted. Beyond practical considerations, they raise important epistemological questions about how research is shaped when conducted in company of family or with ‘family in the field’. Recognizing this, a working group was formed during the DGSKA conference in Bremen in 2021.

The foundation of the working group “Family in the Field” was preceded by workshops at the universities of Cologne (2019) and Frankfurt (2020). Both workshops dealt with the organization and financing of accompanied field research, as well as its epistemological contribution to the research findings. The workshop in Cologne resulted in the edited volume Being a parent in the field (Braukmann et al. 2020a) while the findings on funding of accompanied field research from the workshop in Frankfurt, were incorporated into the of the working group’ website (familieimfeld.org).

Currently, the working group deals with questions surrounding accompanied field research and offers a permanent platform for anthropologists to exchange information and experiences. It offers a space to discuss theoretical, methodological, ethical and organizational questions concerning accompanied research, not least in several online meetings with paper presentations by esteemed colleagues in the past. Furthermore, the working group wants to assist researchers in securing funding for accompanied research and informing funding agencies about the need for accompanied research and the relevant financial requirements. This is a desideratum in anthropology as most field research is done during the PhD and postdoc phases, precisely when many people are also starting families while employment is precarious.

The working group’s website hosts an extensive reference list of contributions from anthropology and related disciplines for interested scholars. If you notice any gaps, please let us know and we add. The second stream of work of the working group was to promote the theme at various national and international anthropological conferences (EASA 2024, DGSKA 2023 and now in 2025) and gather contributions for two publications. The one is a forthcoming special section in the journal Paideuma. The second publication, now in planning and drawn from the papers of this year’s conference, is a handbook to be published by Springer. The blog contributions are part of the process.

Speakers of the working group

Julia Koch-Tshirangwana
Judit Tavakoli
Sophia Thubauville

Handbook project “accompanied fieldwork in anthropology”

 A final agenda of the working group is not only to discuss the topic of accompanied field research more intensively among colleagues, as with this special section, but also to sensitize students to the topic. Unfortunately, the topic of field research with one’s family is still not part of the curriculum of programmes in anthropology. A first step by the working group to introduce the topic to students is therefore current work on a handbook on accompanied field research. All abstracts presented in this blog will be drafted as handbook articles. We are delighted to be able to use this boasblog to put the topics of the articles up for discussion and welcome any kind of feedback.