Corporeal encounters in the academia

THE PROCESS OF DOING ACADEMIC research involves a range of encounters, both with human and non-human beings and things. As discussed in the introduction, these encounters are inevitably corporeal, and thereby, they bring about various ethical moments and struggles to be lived with; corporeality and proximity are the very condition that shapes the way we orient and respond to others. In what follows, we ponder what this condition means in the everyday academic praxis. With the help of short stories and written sketches produced by the academics working at the University of Lapland, we exemplify how corporeal encounters – ‘sticky’ encounters in our case – play a role in different phases of doing research: from the idea generation to the practice of doing fieldwork and writing. In doing so, these stories also illustrate how corporeal ethics is closely linked to epistemological issues – shaping what is and can be known. When we acknowledge the fact that ethics is grounded in our embodied locations and the other bodies surrounding us – instead of being a mere calculation of our minds – we should perhaps start thinking of epistemology in the same way. Likewise, knowing is embodied, situated and often proximate, if not even intimate.

These written sketches are the outcome of a creative writing workshop tutored by professor David Carlin at the Ranua Zoo as part of the faculty research seminar. They are followed by concluding thoughts from Anu Valtonen, as she reflects on beginning a new research project.