Fieldwork with the Dead and Other Considerations: An Interview with Ashanté M. Reese

Abstract

Joining in virtual conversation, Ashanté M. Reese and Sheyda M. Aboii explore their engagements with Black feminist praxis and theory in their ethnographic fieldwork and emergent projects. Marking the start of the inaugural Black Feminist Health Science Studies (BFHSS) Collaboratory in May 2021, this edited interview between a professor and graduate student addresses perspectives on what it might mean to work alongside others and attend to methods of Black life and Black livingness. Together, Reese and Aboii consider refusal as a careful balance between documentation and redaction in their work. They also discuss fieldwork with the dead through altar making, practiced memorialization, and strategic remembrance. Their exchange concludes with a return to Black feminist guides for storytelling, witnessing, and living. Among other thematics, this exchange highlights the creative potential of generous collaboration in BFHSS and the attendant vulnerabilities that create the "something that feels shared" vital to medical anthropological inquiry.