ABSTRACT
As social scientists in throes of social justice research, in this chapter, the authors examine how our scholarship interacted with our sometimes-activism, and how they negotiated the tensions and utilized the cohesions that developed. They explore how emotions and standpoints of activism—even our activism in its limited capacity of street-side participation—added some conflict to this research, but also informed and clarified other aspects. The authors acknowledge differences between terms as described by Julia Rouse and Helen Woolnough and Dan. Rabinowitz, including various approaches to creating change, but also highlight a shared engaged, resistance, and activist anthropology focus on activism (physical activism or activism via standpoint) in tandem with scholarship. In the chapter, the authors reflect not on sign data that they collected but on our methods as engaged participant-observers and auto-ethnographers, and the implications of both. The authors examine ambiguities, tensions, and cohesions of auto-ethnographic research with focus on our overlapping roles as citizens, participant-observers, and sometimes-activist bodies.
