Emotional work: ethnographic fieldwork in prisons in Ecuador

Prolonged periods collecting data alone and away from home are established aspects of doctoral research. Where we seek to engage with people and place, both physically and intellectually, emotional engagement frequently follows. Recently, there has been a heightened awareness of the role of emotions in research. In this paper I offer an 'anatomy' of emotions in my doctoral field research on women in the international drugs trade in prisons in Ecuador. Drawing on fieldnotes, I examine how emotional engagement with prisons and inmates affected me personally and emotionally. In particular, I will examine how conducting research in a 'hidden' community with a stigmatised population affected me. I will also consider how, as a PhD student, I brought emotional needs to the field that affected how I understood my emotions in (and in reaction to) the field that I worked. I conclude that whilst emotional engagement may be a useful (and perhaps unavoidable) aspect of ethnographic research, gaining emotional distance remains an important tool in ethnographic research.