"Reciprocal writing" refers to writing that fosters mutual exchange between researchers and communities - a "give and take" relationship. ​When I’m doing fieldwork, I always feel this huge debt to the people who share their stories with me. They’re giving me such precious material for my research, so of course I want to give something back—usually by writing something for them in their own language. It’s exactly what Mauss talked about with gift-giving, just between researchers and the people they work with.

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I also practice reciprocal writing as part of my public scholarship. It troubles me that academic work often remains confined to scholarly circles when it could engage wider audiences. The production of knowledge, as I take a Marxist stance, is to "inform and change the world".