Observations from the field: On the body, gender, and Al wehdat camp in Amman, Jordan

Abstract

Coming as a collection of observations from the field, I used this article to reflect on 9 months of fieldwork in Al Wehdat camp in Amman, Jordan. Using feminist research methodologies that make transparent the process of knowledge production, primarily ethnographic field visits and focus group discussions, I relied on the bodies of the camp inhabitants as sites of knowledge to learn more about life in the camp, with all what their embodied knowledge encompasses of ambiguity and the messiness of everyday life, aiming to challenge some of the power structures that otherwise control the process of knowledge production about and in the camp. I also brought myself into the frame of inquiry and used my own body as a tool of investigation, reflecting on my own position as a female researcher that is both an outsider and an insider to the camp context.