ABSTRACT
In this chapter I reflect on my research process. I have organized it into three parallel and related parts that include ethnographic doing, knowing, and telling. I will explain how I arrived at viewing ethnographic research as a “social art form,” 1 an exercise in abiding curiosity, careful listening, painstaking observation, sustained attention, emotional engagement, missed opportunities, and the search for self-knowledge. I write about three key interpersonal encounters to illustrate my analytic approach and the dilemmas I faced trying to enter the PPPT girls’ worlds. Above all I want to make a case for what I have called “activist” ethnography (Luttrell 1997: 121) that, among other things, enables researchers and those who are the subjects of research to change how they see themselves and are seen by others.
