Geographies of outsiderness: insights from multi-sited fieldwork on the Armenian diaspora

This article describes the field experiences of two researchers who are identified as the 'historical other' in their research communities. More specifically, this article examines the positionality of Turkish scholars researching Armenian communities to overcome the dichotomous insider/outsider paradigm, expands the position of in-betweenness in the existing literature, and demonstrates divergent manifestations in 'specific cases'. This article does not only address positions of outsiderness arising from ethnic and national conflicts between the researchers and the research group, but also explores the variables - political orientation, class, sub-ethnicity, gender, and generation - that shape various geographies of outsiderness. It demonstrates that outsiderness is not only determined by the researchers' encounters with the group and their histories, but also by material reasons, such as the power relationships and activities in transnational social spaces. In so doing, this work contributes to the methodology literature, by exploring different geographies of outsiderness beyond approaches in fieldwork studies on the outsider/insider dichotomy in researcher's positionality. Cet article d & eacute;crit les exp & eacute;riences sur le terrain de deux chercheurs que l'on identifie comme 'autres historiques' (the historical other) au sein de leurs communaut & eacute;s de recherche. Plus pr & eacute;cis & eacute;ment, il examine la positionnalit & eacute; des & eacute;rudits turcs qui recherchent des communaut & eacute;s arm & eacute;niennes pour d & eacute;passer la dichotomie du paradigme initi & eacute;/& eacute;tranger (insider/outsider), & eacute;largit la position de l'entre-deux au sein de la litt & eacute;rature existante et d & eacute;montre des manifestations divergentes dans des 'cas sp & eacute;cifiques'. Cet article concerne non seulement les positions d'& eacute;trang & egrave;ret & eacute; qui surviennent des conflits ethniques et nationaux entre les chercheurs et le groupe de recherche, mais il explore & eacute;galement les variables (orientation politique, classe sociale, sous-ethnicit & eacute;, genre et g & eacute;n & eacute;ration) qui fa & ccedil;onnent diverses g & eacute;ographies d'& eacute;trang & egrave;ret & eacute;. Gr & acirc;ce & agrave; ses conclusions, cet oe uvre contribue & agrave; la litt & eacute;rature m & eacute;thodologique en explorant les diff & eacute;rentes g & eacute;ographies d'& eacute;trang & egrave;ret & eacute; au-del & agrave; des approches dans les & eacute;tudes de terrain sur la dichotomie initi & eacute;/& eacute;tranger au niveau de la positionnalit & eacute; des chercheurs. Esteart & iacute;culo describe las experiencias de campo de dos investigadores identificados como el "Otro hist & oacute;rico" en sus comunidades de investigaci & oacute;n. M & aacute;s espec & iacute;ficamente, examina la posici & oacute;n de acad & eacute;micos turcos que investigan las comunidades armenias parasuperar el paradigma dicot & oacute;mico de interno/externo, ampl & iacute;a la posici & oacute;n intermedia en la literatura existente y demuestra manifestaciones divergentes en casos espec & iacute;ficos. Este art & iacute;culo nosolo aborda las posiciones del externo derivadas de los conflicto s & eacute;tnicos y nacionales entre los investigadores y el grupo de investigaci & oacute;n, sino que tambi & eacute;n explora las variables -orientaci & oacute;n pol & iacute;tica, clase, sub-etnia, g & eacute;nero y generaci & oacute;n- que configuran diversas geograf & iacute;as de externo. De este modo, este trabajo contribuye a la literatura metodol & oacute;gica, explorando diferentes geograf & iacute;as del externo m & aacute;s all & aacute; de los enfoques en estudios de campo sobre la dicotom & iacute;a externo/interno en la posici & oacute;n de los investigadores.