Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: One of the main principles in ethnological research is to give a voice to research participants.On the other hand, researchers also possess unique voices.This challenges us, as researchers, to reflect and understand the ways in which we influence the world through our studies, raising questions such as: where and how are the voices of our research heard?Whose voices are heard, and who listens to them?What kind of research is valuable?These questions inspired the XII Finnish Ethnology Days' theme this year: Voices and Practices in Research.The annual conference, organised by the Association of Finnish Ethnologists Ethnos ry, took place this year in Helsinki at Tieteiden talo (the House of Science and Letters).The two days included three keynotes, eight workshops, one experimental affect workshop and an evening get-together with dinner at the Helsinki City Museum.The conference gathered 140 participants to reflect on the voices of ethnological research.To stay with the theme, the voices of this report are Sauli Okker (SO), who gave a presentation during the conference, and Aino Laiho (AL), who is a first-time attendee of the Finnish Ethnology Days.After a warm welcome from the organisers, the first conference day started with a keynote introducing the main topics of the conference.Fataneh Farahani, professor of Ethnology at Stockholm University, delivered a keynote titled 'Diasporic Epistemic Vulnerabilities: Troubling the concept of voice within the compulsory Eurocentric knowledge production'.It critically explored the concept of 'giving voice' in academic settings and aimed to move beyond mechanistic and singular approaches, as well as the romanticisation of this notion.Does being granted a voice automatically mean receiving power too?Not necessarily, she argued, as this may lead to 'representational tokenism', whereby the so-called 'white we' decide to practice white hospitality towards marginalised groups and choose how and to whom a voice is given, causing narratives to become singular.(AL) Although I am ethnically white and European, due to my position as a Deaf person and signer, Farahani's examples and thoughts were not completely unfamiliar to me.I eagerly wrote down useful terms in my notes, such as 'unhomed', and 'racialising academia'.Farahani quoted Poppy De Souza when referring to "willfully mishearing white ears".Coincidentally,
Source: Ethnologia Fennica
Authors: Aino Laiho, Sauli Okker
Institutions: University of Turku, University of Jyväskylä
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4402564701