Hard categories and hard work: Feminist memory work as research methodology

In this paper memory-work is explored as a possible methodological road to take when doing positioning-work. The focus is on practises or ¿how-to-do¿ questions. The category under scrutiny is whiteness as a majority position. Starting from feminist epistemological discussions I will investigate ways of practising the epistemological standpoint of ¿situated knowledges¿. Normally memory-work is used to address gender or more specifically femininity but as argued here, it is well suited to investigations of racialisation, too. The analysis shows that silent avoidance of matters associated with race helps keep the majority position in place; whiteness is co-produced with silence through avoidance in concrete everyday situations. In the light of the embarrassment involved in articulating a majority or unmarked position the question is asked whether feminist studies may be more apt to be in opposition rather than in position Despite a number of problematic aspects memory-work proved interesting and productive in bridging the gap between an epistemological standpoint and the nitty-gritty work of doing empirical research. It helped clarify racialisation as a relational phenomenon, and that lack of attention to or awareness of race have implications for scientific knowledge production.