Desiring researchers: reflecting on sexuality and fieldwork in Senegal

My research on sexually dissident women in Senegal involves participant observation in bars. Bars are particularly gendered and sexualised spaces where sex workers come to look for clients, men come to look for sex, and queer women express their sexuality relatively freely. Navigating such a space as a researcher is both challenging and informative regarding social and sexual dynamics in urban Senegal. Through a reflection on personal experiences of unwanted sexual attention and sexual harassment from interlocutors, this article attempts to further our theoretical discussions on the productive and unproductive aspects of sexuality in our fieldwork.