When ethnography does not rhyme with anonymity: Reflections on name disclosure, self-censorship, and storytelling

Abstract

Maintaining informants’ confidentiality is a cornerstone of ethical clearance in most academic institutions’ boards, and a pre-requisite to conduct ethnographic fieldwork. However, this prescriptive environment does not account for the diversity of contemporary ethnographic fieldwork, and little has been written on the challenges faced by anthropologists who may need to identify participants in their research by their name. What are the specific empirical and theoretical implications of non-anonymous ethnographies? Drawing on accounts from a research conducted between 2007 and 2013 among Iraqi artists in exile, this study presents a situation that did not allow for protecting the anonymity and confidentiality of informants. This paper reflects on some of the challenges associated with name disclosure in anthropological research, and questions implications for both the participants and the researcher. The paper finally explores avenues to tackle barriers to unveil the collective in non-anonymous ethnographies across and beyond artists’ tales of creative individualities.