March 28, 2013

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When Doing Sensitive Interviews, Have Emergency Puppy

By Kate Clancy

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

So, I haven’t had a chance to blog these last few weeks. Part of it is that I’ve been submitting papers, revising papers, teaching, and giving talks – the usual gig for a professor. Part of it, if I’m being honest, is the new workout program I’ve been on, and the extra three hours a week of physical therapy I’ve also been doing to rehab a shoulder injury. It’s hard to wake up at 5am when you have 12 hours a week of exercise as well as a full time job and childcare.

The real reason, I think, is that I’ve been mentally and emotionally sapped from the interviews I have been conducting over the last few weeks as the follow up to the Biological Anthropology Field Experiences Survey (you can still participate in the survey, and you can still do an interview). I've figured out that it helps to have a posse of people I can go to when sensitive topics are covered, which is why I am so glad I have fantastic collaborators. I've also lucked out with truly brilliant, thoughtful participants. I’m not sharing the details just yet, or my preliminary observations since the first wave of interviews are ongoing.

But I will say one thing. Many of the stories I have heard are unacceptable. And it is my mission now, mine and many other strong allies, to figure out how to change the culture and structure of field experiences so that these unacceptable things do not happen to anyone else.

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In the meantime, we need some puppies.

I am Dr. Kate Clancy, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. On top of being an academic, I am a mother, a wife, an athlete, a labor activist, a sister, and a daughter. My beautiful blog banner was made by Jacqueline Dillard. Context and variation together help us understand humans (and any other species) as complicated. But they also help to show us that biology is not immutable, that it does not define us from the moment of our birth. Rather, our environment pushes and pulls our genes into different reaction norms that help us predict behavior and physiology. But, as humans make our environments, we have the ability to change the very things that change us. We often have more control over our biology than we may think.

More by Kate Clancy

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