From Body to Science

Ethnobiography as a Device of Recognition and Resistance

Abstract

This article examines ethnobiography as a legitimate epistemology for knowledge production in the Humanities, particularly within disability and accessibility studies. Grounded in debates on social recognition, epistemic justice, and situated knowledge, the paper problematizes the exclusion of the researcher’s embodied experience from dominant scientific paradigms. The objective is to demonstrate how first-person narrative, combined with audiovisual records, can function as an analytical method capable of transforming individual experiences of exclusion into sociological evidence and public claims for recognition. Methodologically, the study is based on ethnobiographical research conducted by a researcher with a physical disability, integrating experiential narrative, critical analysis, and audiovisual documentation of architectural barriers in university spaces. The results indicate that ethnobiography expands empirical inquiry by incorporating sensory, affective, and moral dimensions often neglected in conventional research. The article concludes that this approach contributes to the democratization of scientific knowledge by recognizing the body as a legitimate source of knowledge.