A vicarious scar

Secondary trauma and ethnographic care in fieldwork

Bibliographic Data

ID2261840
AuthorsErin Routon (0000-0002-4719-1401, Department of Comparative Cultural Studies University of Houston Houston Texas USA, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume52
Issue1
Pages73-78
Publication date2025-02-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Ethnologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/amet.13379
OpenAlexW4405736107
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited22

Difficult challenges are an unavoidable aspect of doing ethnographic fieldwork in sensitive spaces or on sensitive subjects. A less commonly discussed problem, however, is the impact that vicarious or secondary traumas can have on researchers. Here, I discuss my experience of secondary trauma in conducting research with legal advocates in family-detention facilities in the US. Even in work in which trauma is centered, I show, the traumatic "wounds" of fieldwork can go unidentified, to the researcher's own detriment. I echo calls for our discipline to better recognize how ethnographers experience trauma, which results in part from continued disciplinary norms, and to reconsider our work as care. Additionally, I call for further attention to the more complex psycho/somatic traumas that can result from field research

Sociology · History · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics

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