ABSTRACT
What are the implications when an analysis involves a translation of insights gained through a particular kind of professional interaction with ‘a field’ into qualitative data that forms the basis of a scholarly endeavor? This chapter reflects on my employment in humanitarian agencies and the translation of this experience into anthropological knowledge, i.e., the ‘ethnographic present’ of later academic work. In line with the overall ambition of this book, I am revisiting earlier work to discuss how my employment in an international humanitarian organization working in Darfur in the western part of Sudan over the period 2004–2005 provided me with the empirical experience for my Master’s thesis (Hastrup 2006) and a basis for further research among Darfurian refugees in eastern Chad (Hastrup 2009, 2012). I reflect here on my position as Field Coordinator for an American NGO working in Darfur from 2004–2005 responsible for implementing relief and development programs for the displaced in one of Darfur’s largest camps.
