Mentor: Mark Peterson, Ph.D.

This research explores how co-narration, constrained agency, and shared emotional experiences shape tourists’ perceptions of risk during travel. Drawing on autoethnographic fieldnotes and co-travelers’ narratives from a three-week study program in Nepal, I analyze a pivotal incident of public violence that occurred during our stay in Pokhara. Through analysis of this event and its aftermath, I demonstrate how travelers collectively interpret uncertainty and danger through storytelling and emotional alignment. Situating the analysis within the frameworks of tourist gaze (Urry), feminist ethnography (Behar, Narayan), and co-narration (Ochs & Taylor), I argue that group dynamics and structural limitations—such as rigid itineraries and unequal power hierarchies—amplify our perceived sense of risk. These findings contribute to broader conversations about tourism, vulnerability, and the affective dimensions of fieldwork, particularly in contexts where individual autonomy is compromised and risk is managed through social meaning-making.