Conducting research in post-conflict environments presents particular challenges for academic researchers in terms of methodology, access, and ethics. While interest in conducting research in these environments continues to grow, the literature on how to respond to the particular challenges they present in the field has not kept pace. Researchers may be at risk of violence, find the social and political environment to be unusually unstable and conflictful, have trouble accessing some regions or groups, or discover that their research and methodology has ethical implications and ramifications that they did not consider in advance. This workshop convened to discuss these ethical dilemmas and field research methodology concerns encountered while conducting research in post-conflict environments on December 4th and 5th, at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Please also see our Field Research and Ethics section for more information on this topic.
Abstracts for all participant papers can be downloaded in PDF format below. Full-length versions for some papers are available in our Online Reader.
Cyril K. Adonis, Ethical Dilemmas in Conducting Research with Ex-Combatants in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Victor O. Asiedu, 'Knocking' - a Useful Entry Requirement Tool in Post-Conflict Environment: A Critical Appraisal based on Empirical Research in Sierra Leone
Dana Burde, Studying Community-Based Schools in Afghanistan
Lee Ann Fujii, Ethical Challenges of Micro-level Fieldwork
Eva Gerharz, Ambivalent Positioning in Post-Conflict Settings. Reflections of Ethnographic Field Research in Northern Sri Lanka
Kristine Höglund, Researching Peace and Conflict: Sensitive Topics, Sensitive Environments
Christof P. Kurz, Eyewitness to Conflict and Peace: Key Informants and Causal Accounts of War and Peacebuilding
Peter Locke, Experimental Citizens: Ethical Dilemmas of Fieldwork in Post-War Sarajevo Civil Society
Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso, Accessing Returnee Refugee Women in Post-War Liberia: Practical, Ethical and Gender Considerations
Christine Pagen, Implications of Associations Between INGOs and Academic Researchers: Reflections from Southern Sudan
Justin Pearce, Challenging ‘Victor’s History’ in Post-War Angola
Mareike Schomerus, Chasing the Kony Story
Bandita Sijapati, Moral Dimensions of Research Ethics: Dilemmas of a Researcher Caught during Communal Riots in Nepal
Carla Suarez, Breaking Community Silences Field Research Reflections from Guatemala and Peru
Zeena Zakharia, Critical Moments, Critical Concerns for Social Science Research, During and After War
For the Workshop's opening presentation on the ethical problems encountered by researchers today, please see:
Susan Thomson, Developing Ethical Guidelines for Researchers Working In Post-Conflict Environments