ABSTRACT
Quantum physicists discovered something interesting, which classical physicists said was an impossibility. They discovered that sometimes, particles of matter behave like waves. Under certain conditions, quantum physicists have been able to document that particles interact with each other in ways that classical physicists said could not happen. They interact like waves. Diffraction is a concept that comes out of quantum physics. Basing a method on notions developed by a different discipline, for different purposes, one runs the risk of butchering and misappropriating the original idea. Reflection and diffraction are both optical phenomena. In a diffractive ethnography, the researcher is a presence, and active force, in the assemblage that becomes the research. Barad uses what she calls a diffractive reading to emphasize how waves of knowledges intra-act. The unit of analysis in a diffractive ethnography is not people or groups, but phenomena.
