Deluged Fieldsites, Traumatised Selves: Environmental Trauma and Its Implications for Disaster Research in Anthropology

Abstract

What can the contribution of anthropologists be when working with communities facing post-disaster trauma? What are the role, responsibilities and – equally important – needs of the anthropologist in a post-disaster site? What are the processes for conducting fieldwork when a disaster hits and the ethics of researching a community struggling with its wellbeing?
This paper addresses these questions based on ethnographic material gathered during and in the wake of an unforeseen deluge that hit Samothráki, a remote island in NE Greece, in September 2017. I am employing two quite different types of data, responses to an online survey and (auto)ethnographic observations, to discuss the experience of post-traumatic stress following a disaster, as this was expressed in private and public spaces. Instead of pathologising trauma and treating people as its passive recipients, the concept of ‘environmental trauma’ is introduced as a dynamic, formative process through which disaster survivors resituate themselves and consider their way forward in a future of climate crisis. The paper also raises important ethical issues related to conducting research in a site and/or with people affected by a disaster, and concludes with providing three key recommendations for a trauma- and disaster-informed anthropological research, particularly useful for teaching and training.

Keywords: Post-disaster trauma, post-traumatic stress, environmental disasters, climate change, research ethics, autoethnography