The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has prompted researchers to rethink their fieldwork. My doctoral fieldwork plans, which involved conducting ethnographic research amongst Afghan refugees and migrants in New Delhi and Kolkata, were upended because of the recurring waves of the pandemic and the lockdowns/curfews that were imposed in their wake (2020−2022). Locked out of my field, my inability to conduct my research as planned amounted to a failure that could not be redeemed, especially because of time constraints. Using autoethnographic vignettes of my encounters in the lead up to the eventual suspension of in-situ fieldwork, I critically reflect on how I approached and felt towards failures in/of field and how these encounters speak back to the discourse on failure in academia. In doing so, this article advocates for the need to revisit failures simply for what they are, without necessarily demanding and/or (self) expecting that we recast them as stepping stones towards success. By challenging the neo-liberal desire to re-present failures in a productive light, I argue we can make greater room for more supportive discussions around failures without committing ourselves to the task of having to find triumph in (every) adversity.

中文翻译：

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让失败成为现实：COVID-19、博士实地考察和不（不想）从失败中学习

持续的 COVID-19 大流行促使研究人员重新考虑他们的实地工作。我的博士实地考察计划涉及在新德里和加尔各答的阿富汗难民和移民中进行人种学研究，但由于大流行的反复浪潮以及随之而来的封锁/宵禁（2020-2022 年）而被颠覆。被锁定在我的领域之外，我无法按计划进行我的研究相当于无法挽回的失败，特别是因为时间限制。在最终暂停现场实地考察之前，我使用自己的民族志小插曲，批判性地反思了我如何处理和感受现场/现场的失败，以及这些遭遇如何回应学术界关于失败的讨论。在这样做，这篇文章主张有必要重新审视失败，而不必要求和/或（自我）期望我们将它们重新塑造成通向成功的垫脚石。通过挑战新自由主义以富有成效的方式重新呈现失败的愿望，我认为我们可以为围绕失败进行更多支持性讨论腾出更大的空间，而不必让我们自己承担必须在（每一个）逆境中取得胜利的任务。