Doing fieldwork* in my home country vs. in a foreign country has created fascinating patterns of access & lots of questions for research design & data interpretation. A thread on positionality: 1/

*obviously all virtual right now

(1) how I try for access in the 1st place. In Germany, I started fieldwork with virtually no network. So I navigated the line between professionalism—presenting myself as an "expert"—& novelty—presenting myself as a curious yet naïve foreigner. 2/

Both of these are true: I'm a subject matter expert on "terrorism" (whatever that means) in general, & I'm also not German & so miss nuances in German practices. So the Q was whether the latter was off-putting or endearing, & if the former could "make up" for the latter. 3/

As I was navigating these issues, my interlocutors were also navigating their impressions of me! I have a very German name & pass for native over email (& in person, up to a point), so some glossed over my US university affiliation & assumed shared experience I didn't have. 4/

Others found the "curious yet naïve foreigner" component of my identity intriguing—they were flattered but perplexed that I was interested in their work—or were (pleasantly, I think) surprised when I overcame some tropes of foreignness (such as by speaking good German). 5/

Who responded which way was heavily gendered, as one might guess, and also intersected with age and social class. In the US, meanwhile… 6/

…I have found my gender matters less, bc I have a card to play that carries weight here: I worked in DC, for a well-known organization, prior to grad school. Anyone who’s spent time in DC circles knows how much currency credentials carry. I use the hell out of that one here. 7/

In Germany, my professional background was sometimes a point of interest, but I didn’t lead with it. In the US, it is often one of the first things I mention because this is the dimension of my identity (ex-DC person) that matters the most. 8/

This brings me to (2): to whom I get access. In the US, I have spoken to groups & subgroups with whom I had zero luck in Germany. BUT, I have had much less luck going down avenues that I found very receptive in the German case. 9/

Part of this pattern are the particularities of the German vs. US national security establishments. But I also think the various ways I am received matter: ex-"one of us" vs. outsider, fellow American vs. foreigner, and so on. 10/

I think a lot about what this means for the conclusions I draw: should I assume that US interlocutors' insights feel more candid to me than Germans' bc the US is different, or bc they feel more comfortable w/ me & in diff. circumstances Germans would share similar insights? 11/

Moreover, are US interlocutors who care about my credentials assuming considerable shared knowledge that is so second nature to them that that knowledge is not overtly present in our conversations, even as it influences what they tell me? 12/

Are there parts of my convos w/ German interlocutors that I'm just not picking up on, or fundamentally misinterpreting, bc no amount of learning or living abroad will change the fact that I wasn’t socialized in German society? Qs to keep you up at night, let me tell you. 13/

Anyway, I share all of this as part of my own, ongoing reflections on how my identity as a researcher affects what my research looks like & the "results" that I get, & in an attempt to be open about the complexities & methodological considerations in qualitative work. 14/

And I share this to provide some insight for quantitative scholars into the vast array of choices and factors that go into careful qualitative research design. This work has a method, & if your students aren’t learning it, they aren’t really learning qualitative techniques. 15/

To end on a practical note: if you, like me, are worried you're missing things bc you don't share identities w/ your interlocutors, talk to folx in that middle space. Convos w/ US etc. folx who work in have been invaluable for understanding the effects of my identity. /fin

Also also! For more systematic reflections on positionality and shared (or not) identities, I find this article by Erica Townsend-Bell on her fieldwork in Uruguay very helpful. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/being-true-and-being-you-race-gender-class-and-the-fieldwork-experience/EACDC1312D2F7C0D59D2B59F68F47D7C