As part of our 2026 Knowledge Sharing Series, we hosted the year’s first session on
“Seeing Beyond Data: Visual & Sensory Ethnography in Social Research.”The session was led by Sara Noor, Visual Anthropologist and Documentary Filmmaker, who shared insights from her research project titled“Feminist Re-readings of Labor, Waste, and Visibility in the Dried Fish Community of Daspara, Bangladesh: An Ethnographic & Visual Ethnographic Study.”Her discussion focused on women’s work and everyday lived experiences. She was accompanied by Mahjabin Tasnim Munia, Cinematographer, who will be working with her in the field.
Drawing on examples from Bangladesh and other contexts, the session explored the importance, benefits, and limitations of visual anthropology, highlighting how visual and sensory ethnographythrough images, sounds, gestures, spaces, and silencescan reveal meanings that often remain invisible in conventional research tools. The discussion also reflected on ethical research practices and how these approaches can complement both qualitative and quantitative methods.We were also glad to have Dr. Hasan Ashraf (Professor, JU) and Mohammad Javed Kaisar Ibne Rahman (Associate Professor, SUST), friends of dRi, join the session.Overall, it was an engaging and conversational session with rich exchanges of ideas and experiences.
