A Word from Our Sponsors

A very overdue---and likely very long---update is forthcoming. In the meantime, for those who are interested, I have a mailing address:

c/o Young Voices
PO Box 30010
Chichiri Blantyre
Malawi
PH: 0991746546

You need to include the phone number so the post office will call and let me know that I have mail. Or just tell me that you've sent something so I know to start checking for it.

The address is good for things sent by early December.

Also, for my fellow fieldworkers and future fieldworkers, a book recommendation: Improvising Theory: Process and Temporality in Ethnographic Fieldwork by Allaine Cerwonka and Liisa Malkki. Skim the first chapter---it's mostly a poli sci grad student making the shocking revelation that ethnography is a valuable method. But the bulk of the book is an e-mail exchange between a student in the field (Cerwonka) and her adviser (Malkki) about all the vagaries of fieldwork: how to choose a field site, who makes a good informant, what to include in fieldnotes, etc. I've found reading the exchange hugely helpful---both in answering my own questions about fieldwork (seeing as my own committee is ignoring me) and in reassuring myself that I'm not a total failure at fieldwork (e.g., it's not unusual to spend the first few months just trying to locate and settle into a site).

Stay tuned for a massive round up of a month's worth of ups and downs.