“You’re a Sociologist, I Am Too . . . ”: Seducing the Ethnographer, Disruption, and Ambiguity in Fieldwork with (Mostly) Undocumented Youth

Abstract

The article is about a set of methodological disruptions that occur in ethnographic fieldwork and what these disruptions mean for ethnographic studies, including analysis, representation of data, and experiences of the ethnographic self. This article documents the process of a minoritized high school youth, Queen, entering the research space and the emergent relations among Queen and Latinx undocumented youth. Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s analytics, I theorize disruption as a core concept in this particular experience of engaging in fieldwork as part of a multisite critical ethnography. Presenting three frames of disruption—relating to the research space, analyses and findings, and the ethnographic self—I complicate who gets included and excluded from a study and the implications for relational ethnics in ethnographic fieldwork. Ultimately, I argue that our methodological practices and selves need to be disrupted in order to enhance our views of who/what gets included/excluded during our fieldwork.