New Books in Sociology

Dána-Ain Davis and Christa Craven, "Feminist Ethnography: Thinking Through Methodologies, Challenges, and Possibilities" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022)

Apr 14, 2025

Dána-Ain Davis and Christa Craven, experts in urban studies and feminist ethnography, explore how feminist perspectives reshape research methodologies. They discuss the critical role of community engagement and art in enhancing academic perspectives, as well as the significance of amplifying marginalized voices. The conversation dives into the evolution of feminist ethnography and its capacity to challenge traditional power structures, all while sharing personal anecdotes that highlight the transformative potential of their collaborative work.

56:21

Episode guests

Christa Craven

Dána-Ain Davis

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Feminist ethnography emphasizes the importance of incorporating diverse perspectives to challenge traditional norms and enrich understanding of cultural dynamics.

The collaborative nature of feminist ethnography fosters community engagement, promoting ethical considerations and empowerment among marginalized voices in research.

Deep dives

The Essence of Feminist Ethnography

Feminist ethnography combines research methodologies with a focus on gender and its intersections with various social identities, such as race and class. It emphasizes the importance of diverse perspectives in understanding cultural dynamics, challenging traditional norms within the social sciences. The concept of ethnography is framed around the interactions between researchers and their subjects, stressing the integrity of voices often marginalized in conventional research. This approach not only seeks to document experiences but also critiques power structures and encourages a sense of agency among participants.

Intro

5min

Feminist Ethnography: Voices and Methodologies

12min

The Power of Art and Community in Shaping Academic Perspectives

4min

Engaging with Feminist Ethnography

12min

Exploring the Origins and Evolution of Feminist Ethnography

4min

Navigating Feminist Ethnography

15min

How do we acquire knowledge about societies? Does how we acquire social knowledge shape what we know? How conscious must we be of our own experiences as we do our research? What does feminism add to our methods and modes of research?

Now in its second edition, Feminist Ethnography: Thinking through Methodologies, Challenges, and Possibilities (Rowman and Littlefield, 2022) by Drs. Crista Craven and Dána-Ain Davis answers these questions. The book is at once a how-to manual for doing feminist ethnography and a compendium of contributions from influential feminist ethnographers. Designed for students, scholars, community activists, and anyone interested in social knowledge, the book is multi-vocal and interdisciplinary and promotes critical methodologies as sites for reflection, collaboration, and creativity. It is a particularly important work for this moment in which anti-DEI efforts aim to minimize the work and perspectives of minoritized groups.

Dr. Christa Craven (she/her/hers) is a Professor of Anthropology and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the College of Wooster, and co-founder of the Global Queer Studies minor. She has published four books, including Feminist Ethnography. Her 2019 monograph, Reproductive Losses: Challenges to LGBTQ Family-Making was awarded the Council on Anthropology & Reproduction’s Book Prize in 2021, and selected by Women.com as a book that puts “the long, complicated history of reproductive rights into sharp focus.”

Dr. Dána-Ain Davis is Professor of Urban Studies at Queens College, City University of New York and on the faculty of the PhD Programs in Anthropology and Critical Psychology. She is the director of the Center for the Study of Women and Society at the CUNY Graduate Center. Davis is the author, co-author, or co-editor of five books including Feminist Ethnography. NYU Press published Davis’s Reproductive Injustice: Racism, Pregnancy, and Premature Birth in 2019 and the book received the Eileen Basker Memorial Prize from the Society for Medical Anthropology and The Senior Book Prize from the Association of Feminist Anthropology. Dr. Davis is also a doula.

Mentioned in the Podcast:

Feminist Activist Ethnography:Counterpoints to Neoliberalism in North America, edited by Christa Craven and Dána-Ain Davis
Jafari S. Allen’s The Anthropology of ‘What is Utterly Precious: Black Feminists, Black Queer Habits of Mind, and the ‘Object’ of Ethnography,” in Unsettling Queer Anthropology: Foundations, Reorientations, and Departures, edited by Margot Weiss
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College of Wooster’s Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies’s oral histories

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