That's Gonna Leave a Mark
Positionality and Secondary Trauma in Researching Mass Killing and Genocide
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2365740 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Todd H Nelson (0000-0003-2318-3834, Cleveland State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 374-396 |
| Publication date | 2024-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Contemporary Ethnography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0891-2416 • E-ISSN: 1552-5414 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/08912416241238449 |
| OpenAlex | W4392814518 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 36 |
In this article, I describe two fieldwork experiences dealing with traumatic subject matter: a three-month trip to the Russian Federation, researching the crimes of Stalin against the Soviet population, and a two-week odyssey across Poland, researching memorialization of the Holocaust as it occurred there. I had a much more difficult time on the Polish trip. These trips took place at different times, and my positionality had changed dramatically between the two experiences. The other relevant factor in each case was the nature of the material itself and the extent to which I was exposed to it. The Stalinist Terror is much more submerged in Russian society, for example, and it was often challenging to find evidence that it had occurred, as this involved travel to often far-flung Gulag and mass execution sites. In the Polish case, however, the Holocaust narrative and evidence of its occurrence was front and center in my experiences there, to the extent that the ubiquity of sites where terrible events occurred became overwhelming. The interaction of my positionality and the extent to which I was exposed to different types of traumatic experience, led to widely differing emotional tolls on my psyche in each case. I hope an analysis of this interaction, and the differing effects it produced provides information about planning and executing research on traumatic subjects that is valuable to others preparing to undertake it. (Or perhaps it will provide a cautionary tale about what to avoid). This article adds to the literature on personal negative outcomes experienced by those researching traumatic subject matter, particularly in the social sciences
Criminology · Genocide · Political science · Sociology · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration
The International Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods
Previous Exposure to Trauma and PTSD Effects of Subsequent Trauma
Researcher Positionality - A Consideration of Its Influence and Place in Qualitative Research - A New Researcher Guide
Tales of the Field
Positionality and Praxis
Secondary trauma among trauma researchers
Trauma experienced by researchers
Secondary Trauma
Prevalence of Secondary Traumatic Stress among Social Workers
The Unseen Cost
Deep play
Research Ethics, Trauma and Self-care
Timor mortis conturbat me
Researching Under Fire
Getting Personal
How Native Is a "Native" Anthropologist
The Impact of Sensitive Research on the Researcher
The risk of secondary traumatic stress in the qualitative transcription process
Trauma and Testimony
Traumatic Truths and the Gift of Telling
Encounters With the Self in Social Science Research
Analyzing Analytic Autoethnography
Analytic Autoethnography
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |