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Sarah Pink (2009) writes with emotion and humanness in her book Doing Sensory Ethnography<\/em>.\u00a0 Her primary thesis is that to do ethnographic studies wisely, the ethnographer must be open to looking inside herself (reflexivity) as well as looking into the lives of others.\u00a0 Sensory Ethnography demands a commitment to hands-on research that dives beneath the surface of mere observation of one\u2019s \u201cinformants\u201d to a place where every part of the researcher \u2013 including all five (plus) senses \u2013 is involved in the search for \u201cknowing.\u201d\u00a0 Pink discusses both theory and practice and challenges her readers to break out of conventional research into a much more sensory method.\u00a0 She says, \u201c\u2026the notion of ethnography as a participatory practice is framed with ideas of learning as embodied, sensorial, and empathetic<\/em> [italics mine], rather than occurring simply through a mix of participation and observation\u201d (63).\u00a0 She further states, \u201cParticipation might be understood as producing multisensorial and emplaced ways of knowing whereby visual observation is not necessarily privileged.\u00a0 Given the centrality of experience to this methodology, ethnographic knowledge production is an essentially reflexive process\u201d (63).\u00a0 In essence, then, the researcher is not merely observing that which can be seen, touched, heard, smelled, and tasted externally, but is intentionally conscious of what is occurring within herself.\u00a0 This is full sensory commitment to knowing and learning about \u201cthe other\u201d and about oneself.<\/p>\n I had the great privilege of living and teaching in Egypt in 1990 and 1991.\u00a0 This was a tough time for me in many ways.\u00a0 As a student of intercultural studies, I thought I knew what I was doing.\u00a0 But when actually experiencing this culture face to face \u2013 its sights, its smells, its noise, its tastes, its beliefs, and its flies [that is one Egyptian plague that has not gone away]\u00a0 \u2013 I was made painfully aware of how much I had to learn.\u00a0 I began to realize that my preparation was far from adequate, but I also came to understand that it was I who had to turn theory into practice.\u00a0 So, I had to fight off depression and fear and go out to be among the people, inadequate as I was.\u00a0 What I learned through this participatory-style ethnographic research, was that I<\/strong> was the learner as I ate, talked, worshipped, and walked with Egyptians.\u00a0 I made countless mistakes along the way (particularly with my infant Arabic), but this began my journey of sensory ethnography.\u00a0 There is one particular experience that I will never forget that had to do with applied commensality<\/em><\/strong>, defined by Seremetakis (1994) \u201cas the exchange of sensory memories and emotions, and of substances and objects incarnating remembrance and feeling<\/em>\u201d (Pink, 2009, 73).<\/p>\n We were invited to have lunch in the home of a family in our church in Upper Egypt one Sunday, so we (my wife and two children) walked with them to their home.\u00a0 It was probably around 11:30 AM.\u00a0 After we arrived, we were served tea and sat in the sitting room chatting for an hour in English and Arabic.\u00a0 Then one of the family members said that he needed to go out to buy some fish for our lunch.\u00a0 At that point, our hosts handed us \u201cgalabeyas\u201d (a type of Egyptian night gown) and led us to their bedroom where they bid us to take a rest before eating.\u00a0 A couple hours later we dined together for well over an hour, eating, drinking, talking, laughing.\u00a0 We then went into the sitting room to talk some more for at least two or three hours.\u00a0 Then we were bidden to take another rest and eat another meal with them.\u00a0 We then talked more and drank more tea.\u00a0 We finally left around midnight after many hugs and kisses and walked to our flat with sleeping kids, arriving home around 12:30 AM.\u00a0 \u201cPlease come for lunch\u201d took on an entire new meaning to us after that day.\u00a0 We had learned that Egyptian hospitality had a much different definition than American hospitality.\u00a0 We were involved with this family\u2019s lives for a good 12 hours.\u00a0 So who learned about culture that day?\u00a0 We all did.\u00a0 This is sensory ethnography and its finest, and to this day I return to that apartment in my mind every time I eat fish.\u00a0 I wonder what they remember?<\/p>\n Before leaving for London, I will be meeting with a group of academic advisors\/mentors who are journeying with me through the LGP program.\u00a0 They give great input and keep me accountable to my academic and personal goals.\u00a0 They are all great men; I am blessed to have them in my life.\u00a0 We will meet at a unique place where we will commune together over the next three years \u2013 at a local British pub.\u00a0 So why do we meet here?\u00a0 For commensality<\/em>, of course! For all cohort members and soon-to-be London sensory ethnographers \u2014 let the comensalitation begin!<\/p>\n ________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n Pink, Sarah.\u00a0 Doing Sensory Ethnography. London: Sage Publications,\u00a02009<\/p>\n Serametakis, L., 1994.\u00a0 \u201cThe Memory of the Senses: Historical Perception, Commensal Exchange, and Modernity,\u201d in Taylor, L., (ed.), \u201cVisualizing Theory.\u201d London, Sage.\u00a0 Quoted in Sarah Pink, Doing Sensory Ethnography<\/em> (London: Sage Publications, 2009).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sarah Pink (2009) writes with emotion and humanness in her book Doing Sensory Ethnography.\u00a0 Her primary thesis is that to do ethnographic studies wisely, the ethnographer must be open to looking inside herself (reflexivity) as well as looking into the lives of others.\u00a0 Sensory Ethnography demands a commitment to hands-on research that dives beneath the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,264],"class_list":["post-699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-pink-se","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2895,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions\/2895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}