Drawing your way into ethnographic research: comics and drawing as arts-based methodology

ABSTRACT

This article outlines an attempt to use drawing and comics as an arts-based research methodology during an ethnographic project relating to sport and social change in South Africa. The use of drawing within fieldnotes has a long history, and more recently the use of comics as a form of research and dissemination has received increased attention. The purpose of this article is to introduce the potential that drawing and comic making provide as unique arts-based methodologies within ethnographic research. Through examples of comic vignettes, comic panels, and drawings, I illustrate how drawing(s) operated as a site of departure and arrival. My drawings and comics began to trace the entanglements that inevitably develop through ethnographic research. As I started to trace the lines of myself and community members moving and playing within soccer spaces, I was drawn into dialogue and relationship with people, places, and histories.

KEYWORDS:

• Arts-based research
• drawing
• comics
• visual ethnography
• arts-based methodology

Acknowledgments

This research was funded through a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In addition to learning about the Battle of Grahamstown and Elizabeth Salt through my own engagement with community members and the public monuments, my understanding of the events surrounding the Battle of Grahamstown were also developed through the work of historian Julia Wells and her public history projects. In particular, her book The Return of Makhanda: Exploring the Legend outlined the historiography of the Battle of Grahamstown and the significance of Makhanda as a historical figure.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported through a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholaship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC);Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [752-2014-2327];

Notes on contributors

Shawn D. Forde

Shawn Forde is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia. His research is concerned with the variety of ways that sport and physical activity have historically been, and continue to be, used for the purposes of community development, political engagement, and social change. He has an interest in ethnography and arts-based research methodologies.