Fieldwork With Epilogue: Uncontrollable Exits, Dilemmas, and Praxis Stories

This paper critically examines the role of the epilogue in ethnographic writing, focusing on researchers who experience uncontrollable exits— departures caused by factors beyond their control. When such researchers return to the field, they often produce only fragmentary data alongside earlier immersive records. While these fragments may lack analytical depth, they still offer meaningful insight when incorporated into an epilogue. The paper argues that the epilogue is not merely a narrative addendum, but a political and reflexive practice that involves decisions about what counts as analysis. Drawing on literature and praxis, the paper offers strategies for more reflexive epilogue writing.