Paranoid versus Reparative Reading (Hybrid) Workshop

Paranoid versus Reparative Reading (Hybrid) Workshop

Inspired by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s 1997 essay ‘Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading, or, You’re So Paranoid, You Probably Think This Essay Is About You’ , the half day (hybrid) workshop will provide space to explore fraught and difficult feelings, encouraging participants to reflect on things which arouse worry, fear, or reluctance.

We’ll contemplate difficult findings, data, archival matter, interview material and field experiences, thinking about necessary limitations and boundaries. We’ll think about the points at which we stop our research practice or ethnographic engagement and how to better respond to the ‘paranoid hunches’ we might have regarding our own research topics/field sites.

In the second half of the workshop, we’ll pivot to Sedgwick’s reparative mode of reading, which shifts the question away from “is a particular piece of knowledge true?” to “what does knowledge do?”. As a group, we’ll read an assortment of texts and attempt to foreground the needs and knowledges of the object/subject of study. We’ll think about voice, agency, representation, and context.

We’ll finish with two mind-mapping/brainstorming activities, including a compilation of alternative methods of reading, interpreting, analysing and writing, as well as an open discussion regarding our hopes and desires when it comes to our own scholarly work and the academic community/university more generally.

The workshop will also feature two presenters. Prof Stephanie Clare (University of Washington) will join us remotely to discuss her work on feminist affect and the Anthropocene, whilst Nico Edwards (University of Sussex) will reflect on fieldwork conducted within the military arms sector and workshop with participants the process of conducting research in risky, fraught, or hostile environments.

Snacks and drinks will be provided throughout the day. Please register to secure a spot (online or in-person).

Structure of workshop (10am-3pm, with break for lunch):

• Warm-up activity + introductions. Each person will be asked to write a word or sketch an image which best encapsulates their scholarly interest & think about ‘hunches’ or ‘gut feelings’ which informed or directed initial research.

• Brief explanation of paranoid and reparative methods. Group will read select sections of Sedgwick essay together.

• Group discussion of Sedgwick essay. In pairs, participants will be asked to think of moments of paranoia during research or fieldwork. We’ll discuss different types of scholarly paranoia and the difficulties we’ve experienced in university/out in the field.

• Morning tea break.

• Talk by A/Prof. Stephanie Clare (University of Washington) on Earthly Encounters: Sensation, Feminist Theory & the Anthropocene.

• ‘Tracing complex and muddy relations’ mapping activity & group discussion on potential and existing reparative methods.

• Lunch break.

• Presentation by Nico Edwards (University of Sussex) on conducting ethnography across enemy lines.

• Afternoon tea break.

• Excerpts from Sîan Melvill Hawthorne’s Reparative Reading as Queer Pedagogy + Stephanie Clare’s Earthly Encounters. Participants will be given related activity to do in pairs.

• Brainstorming strategies & interactive mind-mapping of hopes & desires.