Interview with Margaret Somerville

Abstract

We came across Margaret Somerville’s book Water in a Dry Land in our reading group about posthumanist and new materialist methodologies. Her water ethnography was important for us because it offered a clear and rich example of research done differently. In her interview, we talked about her water ethnography and all the relationships that made that five-year collaborative project possible. She described her research and writing as a form of embodiment that connects her with her own body, the relationships with other places, and life experiences. She shared with us one of her projects in which she accompanied two young girls in walks from their homes to river over a year. In these walks, Margaret was fascinated with the richness that the act of walking offered to her understanding of children’s relationships with place and their learning, not about, but rather from the sand, the river, and the sounds of birds. If readers are looking for ways to understand Barad’s notion of intra-action, Margaret’s interview will be of help. For example, through short videos, she has recently been documenting what she refers to as “embodied observations.” In turn, these videos have helped her to develop a method to communicate these important ideas with teachers. She reminds us that for “people of the Western society” decentering the human is an important imperative to leave oppressive forms of relations with the land. She shows us how embodiment can be a form of decentering the child and the researcher.