Blog Mission, Ethics

(This entry comes from two ongoing lines of reflection: 1. Self-reflection regarding my roles in Ecuador. How do I negotiate being a sister, daughter, friend, white-woman-in-ecuador, anthropologist, student, teacher, and blogger all at once? and; 2. Reflection regarding the positive/negative effects of social media and individual blogs for relationships and social movements-- see provocative articles here and here).

I started this blog in 2008 as a way to transmit information to friends and loved ones while studying in Ecuador. Trajectories became a space for schizophrenically tracing my final year of college, and for making my family laugh.  For the next 10 months, I am excited to write from Ecuador again.

This is a personal blog. Although characters pass in and out, it is about me and my initial perceptions of the world. It exists to tell you stories, and, of course, broadcast my snarky inner narrator to a larger populous. It is, however, a one-way forum. I hope you will still call, e-mail and send me long letters, since I wish to know your stories as well!

I am a student of sociocultural anthropology. I work with real-life-people, many of whom occupy far more vulnerable social positions than me (probably you too) and yet choose to make themselves constantly vulnerable by engaging with me as an anthropologist. While I will be conducting ethnographic research in Ecuador, this blog is not it. These are not my field notes, much less well-informed arguments about people, cultures or organizations (Case and point: I'm linking you to wikipedia pages). Still, the very nature of ethnographic inquiry means my private relationships and experiences (ie this blog) are completely entangled with what I research/write towards academic ends. So I like to be sensitive regarding my words and images online. I change names, I inch around and omit sensitive information, and ultimately do my best to collaborate with and protect the people with whom I work, on their terms. I follow the American Anthropological Association's Code of Ethics in virtual and actual spaces.