Contact details
Email: t.r.quagliani@uu.nl

Q1: What is your background and how did you come to this project?
Having completed my bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Amsterdam and a master’s degree in organisational anthropology from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, my academic training has focused on ethnographic approaches to studying social relations, everyday practices, and gender norms in institutional and cultural contexts. After completing my bachelor’s degree, my advisor sat me down and said to me: “while you are graduating as a sociology major, you are a natural ethnographer, an anthropologist!”, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Q2: What kind of questions drive your research?
With my prior research dealing with gender norms in the context of gender-based violence and online live-streaming platforms, I am interested in how individuals perform gender in the context of the shooting range, how these performances are embodied, which bodies are marked as ‘other’ in these spaces and what role the firearm plays in identity formation. In South Africa, firearms are synonymous with violence and criminal activity, however, I believe there is a lot to learn from looking at drivers for firearm ownership in everyday, recreational settings and practices. Zooming in on these firearm communities provides a unique window to understand how people engage through and with the firearm in these environments.

Q3: What are your 3 most essential fieldwork items?
Being a newbie to the field of ethnographic fieldwork, my two best friends have been the classic pairing; pen and paper (or pencil and paper in some cases). A third essential, particularly for this fieldwork and even more important for the shooting range, are my protective earmuffs.