The impressionist tale as a way to negotiate the challenges of ethnography in field missions for international organisations

Abstract

ABSTRACT The main purpose of this article is to explore the challenges that a researcher in Interpreting Studies may encounter in writing an ethnographic account of a field mission, being herself an internal observer and working as a conference interpreter for an organisation to which she has pledged allegiance. The article reports reflexively on dilemmas and challenges in conducting the research from an insider position. It demonstrates the ways in which the reflections on these dilemmas and challenges were used to reach a decision on the type of ethnographic account to write. After exploring some forms of ethnographic accounts, the article argues that an impressionist tale is a suitable approach when the researcher is part of the researched subjects and when she and her colleagues are the main characters in a delicate and emotionally charged environment characterised by the need to safeguard confidentiality and anonymity.