Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Geography Fieldwork With Family

"Fieldwork...With Family", published by The Geographical Review in 2001, is a lovely and poetic look at the ways doing fieldwork with a family can influence your experience.   The authors include Paul F. Starrs (Distinguished Professor geography), Lynn Huntsinger (Professor of Rangeland Ecology and Management), and their two daughters (Carlin and Genoa) - all contributing their own perspective to this tale.  This includes a detailed discussion of the logistics of extended international travel with a family, as well as having older children as field assistants.  

Some of my favorite quotes include:
"Let me also be honest and say that, at least for my family and others I know, working in the field together is excitement, a spice to life, the best form of wild ride." "Research was not as I had known it-not worse, but different." "Some of the Indiana Jonesish aspects of fieldwork do get shoved on the shelf when you are accompanied; but for those you can always go back alone, or break off for a stretch."
Professor Starrs was kind enough to share an update about his daughters, they are now 27 and nearly 29.  They're still stalwart fieldworkers, one in Kauai, Hawaii, and the other currently staff at UC Berkeley.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1931-0846.2001.tb00460.x


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