Self-care for the researcher: dark tourism in Varanasi, India

Nitasha Sharma,Jillian M Rickly

doi:10.1080/15313220.2017.1403801

Nitasha Sharma, Jillian M Rickly

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/15313220.2017.1403801

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Abstract

ABSTRACTDark tourism is a popular niche of tourism that allows tourists to come into close proximity with death, atrocity, and the macabre, and therefore has the potential to be an emotional and even traumatic encounter for tourists. While this context has inspired tourism researchers to investigate dark tourists’ motivations, as well as the marketing and representation of dark tourism sites, we have yet to attend to its implications for the researcher. This paper analyzes the emotional experiences and aftermath of fieldwork at the cremation grounds of Varanasi, India, which involved working closely with tourists, Doms, and Aghoris by focusing on the relations of reflexivity, positionality, and emotionality. As a result, we suggest a number of reflexive and self-care practices to be put into place so as to attend to the researchers’ emotional well-being in the fieldwork process.

Highlights

Dark tourism allows tourists to experience the unthinkable from a relatively safe position, either removed temporally from the event or having the ability to leave the site after only a short duration
This paper aims to situate the role of self-care in dark tourism research by examining its relationality to reflexivity, positionality, and emotionality, with particular attention to the implications for the researcher exposed to death and the macabre during fieldwork
In analyzing the fieldwork experiences of the first author at the cremation grounds of Varanasi, we identified a number of themes that demonstrate the relationality of positionality and emotionality to reflexivity, including: role negotiation, gender dynamics, and cultural shock

Summary

Introduction

Dark tourism allows tourists to experience the unthinkable from a relatively safe position, either removed temporally from the event or having the ability to leave the site after only a short duration (see for example Ashworth, 2002; Buda, et al; 2014). This genre of tourism includes such “dark” places as: graveyards, prisons, and sites of conflict, tragedy, atrocity, and disaster. Research ethics approval often requires specific explanations of how the researcher has prepared for such challenges. What is missing from dark tourism chronicles is how the exposure to (both short and long-term) and embodied experiences at sites of death can have lingering emotional and psychological consequences for the researcher, as well as communication about effective self-care strategies that can be employed throughout the research process or episodically as needed

Objectives

Conclusion