A Day in the Life (part 2)

Although I never intended to live what could conceivably be called an "alternate lifestyle", I find myself in exactly such a situation. I am a historian. What does that mean? I like people and their life stories and how those lives interact with bigger things-- governments, nations, laws, etc. Historians, different from sociologists and anthropologists, deal primarily with people who are already dead. (Hence, the history part.) The way in which historians uncover the lives of people already deceased (our methodology) is the use of primary documentation. What is primary documentation? Papers, letters and other things written by the person of interest or people around them, during the time in which they were alive (ex. a photograph of a document I've been using; hard to read? I know!). These are typically collected and housed in an archive. Archives have different jurisdictions-- some are national, state, municipal, etc. This means that books, the internet and all other easily-accessed forms of information are virtually useless to historians hoping to write an original piece of work (except as reference points, footnotes and general guides to what has already been done). A dissertation, aside from being the final test of a potential Ph.D, is also supposed to be their "debut" into academic society, so to speak. Therefore, the research and writing of a dissertation is rigorous and, eventually, supposed to become a person's first professional publication (a book).

For historians like myself (those drawn to foreign countries), this inevitably requires primary document research IN the country of interest. I've lost count on how many times people have asked me why I can't just do the research from the US? Or online? Let me assure you, if that were possible, I would certainly jump at the chance to sleep in my own bed, be around my loving husband and work from home. However, Latin America tends to be a particularly difficult area of specialization in this regard. Despite currently being a stable democracy with a booming economy, Brazil (my area of focus) was once under a military dictatorship and, in the not-so-distant-past, was subject to an economy wildly out of control. The inflation rate in the 80s was in the triple and quadruple digit range. Brazil's historic instability has resulted in spotty interest (due to money) in historic preservation. Unlike the US, Brazil has very little of its history digitized and available remotely (online) to researchers. This means that people like me who have very specific questions that no one else has addressed before in history books MUST go and look at the papers in person to find the answers.

And here I am. Sitting in the kitchen of my tiny, Rio apartment (with no air conditioning) as the temperature soars to a suffocating 92F. I am one of the lucky ones (though the previous sentence doesn't sound like it). I was given money to go to Brazil, stay, live and do research until I have enough original information to write my dissertation-- big props to the US government for making that possible!! So, what the heck am I doing here besides sweating? In my previous post, I laid out an average day in my life here in Rio. But what exactly am I working on? Here's the quick & dirty version of what I hope to be my dissertation(vague enough that no one can "steal" it).

Brazil was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery (1888). Far outstripping others, Brazil imported the largest number of slaves from Africa (around 60%, or roughly 6 million--though these numbers are always in dispute). As a result, it is also a nation in which race (the color of one's skin) has played a complex and debatable role in social status/advancement. My dissertation will examine the way in which slaves and their descendants, once freed, integrated (or didn't) into society. Specifically, I want to look at the education of this group (broadly defining "education"). I'm hoping to prove that, in some ways, society was actually more permissive of slave/former slave advancement through education during the slavery era than after slavery was abolished. Sounds contradictory, right? That's the fun part!

I don't expect everyone to understand what I'm doing and why. I can't understand the thrill of being a stunt person, the pressure of being an ER doctor or the simple joys of being a stay-at-home-mom. That's not who I am but I respect them. It's disappointing when people don't respect my life choices in the same way. Indigant questions like, "How can you leave your husband for so long?" or (worse), "How can you LET her go so far away for so long?" are profoundly disrespectful. Perhaps if I were in the military, people wouldn't find my extended travel/work abroad to be so "strange" and unsettling. My husband and I made this decision together and we felt it was right-- like so many military families do every day. I can't help but feel that it's mainly a "gendered" concern. Meaning-- if my husband were the one who had to live and work abroad people would have less of a problem with it. As an educated, professional woman living in the 21st century who has always been told that she could be "whatever she wanted" and was "equal to a man", I find this extremely sad. Particularly because the harshest critics of my "alternate lifestyle" are primarily other women. I love what I do and yet I'm constantly put on the defensive about what the job entails. Hopefully, this blog-- detailing what it's really all about-- will help clear up some of these misunderstandings. Until next time...