Spencer (2011) argues for affect in anthropological field work and pedagogical training. Anthropologists and anthropological training should include more reflexive and embodied work. Spencer highlights how important affect and embodied experiences are for qualitative research, anthropology in particular. She provides five steps to improving the field of teaching and learning in anthropology. A more embodied and affective approach to anthropology only serves to enhance the research that comes out of the field. Below, I have provided quotes that I found useful for understanding Spencer: 68 - “If doing doctoral fieldwork in anthropology is a personally and professionally transformative process, how do doctoral students prepare to experience and articulate it? To what extent do they recognise it as integral part of anthropological knowledge-making? Could such transformations form part of the wider goals of transformative learning (Taylor 2009) – where values change through knowledge practices and with them, one’s immediate social context changes - potentially adding to broader agendas of social transformation? “68-69 - “While anthropologists gain knowledge in the field through lived, embodied experience and engagement - in relationship to people, things, states, institutions or the environment - most often preparation for doctoral fieldwork consists chiefly of acquiring knowledge about the history and current affairs of the region, or the concepts (they would focus on) and the existing scholarly or political debates in their field. “69 - “In this paper, I suggest that the transformative potential of anthropology (both in terms of a personal and professional journey and a social and cultural critique) can be achieved only if the individual transformative experiences of anthropologists in the field are understood and fruitfully articulated, and formally added to the strengths of our qualitative method. “
- “The transformations during anthropological fieldwork are affective experiences and the knowledge we gain and share in the field is affective as well as cognitive. When ignored, such understanding may affect, firstly, the quality of the engagement through which we produce knowledge and, consequently secondly, the quality of knowledge itself. “
85 - “ Taking emotions seriously and acknowledging that we rely on them to know, teach and learn, does not mean that we should focus on ourselves, become confessional, or anecdotal. Rather, as Okely (1992:20) argues – what is deemed epistemologically relevant should be only what furthers our primary socio-cultural investigative task. And, as I have argued here, emotional reflexivity may be the key in revealing the potential of anthropology as transformative learning.”Questions: I enjoyed this piece, as I think that affect is such an important and often neglected aspect of qualitative research. What would an affective approach to the entire doctoral student process look like? What would it look like to transform academia (hiring, departmental culture, mentor relationships) with respect to embodied experience and affect? How does one present affect in their research, without drowning out empirical data?