From ‘Muddy glee’ to muddy reflections on fieldwork and writing

Abstract

‘Muddy glee’ by Bracken and Mawdsley made an important contribution to highlighting gender discrimination in fieldwork and the heterogeneity of fieldwork experiences. In the past couple of years, the ability of many researchers to engage in fieldwork has also changed dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we reflect on Bracken and Mawdsley's paper and our own experiences and perspectives of fieldwork in recent years. We discuss a previous paper we co-authored (entitled ‘Pushing the limits’: experiences of women in tropical peatland research), and the benefits that these papers (e.g., ‘Muddy glee’ and ‘Pushing the limits’) may provide. We highlight the value of sharing personal experiences in science (which is often seen as an ‘objective’ space), and how writing for ourselves can be an empowering and community-building act.