“Patchwork Ethnography offers a method to make the discipline more habitable.”
Nathan Tilton
15 May 2024
Published: 28 June 2023
Image by Nathan Tilton.
Patchwork Ethnography challenges the traditional dynamics of what it means to engage with the field as a parent, as a disabled person, and across multiple intersectional identities and life experiences. As a graduate student conducting fieldwork research, Nathan often confronts what it means to be away from medical and social support structures. Reflecting on Patchwork Ethnography as a method for research, Nathan has structured his fieldwork around shorter stays in the field as well as virtual encounters, allowing him to minimize long stretches of time away from his service dog, his young kids and his wife. He has at times brought his oldest son along with him to his field sites in Guam, weaving together his research and his desire to introduce his son to meaningful experiences in the world.
As a first-generation college student, army veteran, father, disabled person, and person of color, Nathan shares that Patchwork Ethnography helps to make the world more habitable and assuages feelings of being an imposter as a researcher. Nathan finds validation in the Patchwork approach, affirming the possibility to conduct research while still caring for himself, his family and his service dog. “Patchwork Ethnography offers a method to make the discipline more habitable not just for disabled folks in the traditional sense but also for nontraditional marginalized folks, such as those who do not have access to large grants or need to care for a relative at home.” Reflecting on ableism in his field sites and in academia, a patchy fieldwork approach informs Nathan’s commitment to critically challenge disciplinary conventions and cultivate more expansive ethnographic practices.
Nathan Tilton is a PhD student in the Anthropology department at the University of California, Berkeley and Associate Director at the UC Berkeley Disability Lab. Nathantilton82@berkeley.edu.