Ambivalent Belonging in the Fields of Home

Abstract

Through telling the interconnected stories of three women (the author, her grandmother, and her interlocutor, a leader in a temple community), this article explores the complicated dynamics that can occur when one’s field is both one’s home and not one’s home. Specifically, it explores the ways in which being an American scholar of Indian descent who studies the Hindu diaspora can shed light on the gendered dynamics of belonging, authority, autonomy and authenticity in the field and at home. Ultimately, the article suggests that a scholarly approach of ambivalent belonging that eschews the normative boundaries between home and field, the personal and the scholarly, provides an ethical framework for research and writing.