Researchers as Griots? Reflections on Multimedia Fieldwork and Authorship
Seminar date:
03 June 2010
| Speaker(s: Felix Ameka and Daniela Merolla (project initiator), Dept. of Languages and Cultures of Africa, University of Leiden |
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This seminar will consider the scientific and ethical questions of selection, authorship and audience that we encountered when making a DVD based on an interview that Kofi Dorvlo and Daniela Merolla recorded two yeas ago in Accra. The interview involved Ewe migration stories and the festival at which these stories were re-enacted, the Hogebetsotso in southeastern Ghana. The criteria for our selection were deeply entwined in the scientific and ethical problems we encountered. It was particularly rigorous as we decided to include only the less problematic and less controversial parts of the interview in the video, while we offer the other parts as written material on the CD ROM that accompanies the video documentation. The discussion in this seminar will engage the classical anthropological goal of 'giving voice' to informants as well as the literary concept and practices of 'author' and the recent interdisciplinary notion of 'collaborative authorship'. More information on: |