Researching Hostile Environments and Actors: Violence, Positionality and Responsibility

Abstract

The first session of the SGGP online seminar series Doing Gender and Politics Research in Challenging Times and Environments explores the ethical, methodological, and positional challenges that arise when gender and politics researchers work in politically hostile, violent, or otherwise difficult environments and with hostile and potentially violent actors. The three presentations examine how researchers navigate relationships with political adversaries, experiences of violence and vulnerability during fieldwork, and the consequences of producing knowledge in contexts of authoritarianism, conflict, and political contestation. The presentations challenge conventional understandings of researcher-participant relationships, co-production, reflexivity and research impact. They also draw attention to the embodied and emotional dimensions of research, including questions of researcher safety, and raise questions about the responsibilities institutions and scholarly communities have towards researchers working under difficult conditions. Presenters: Elżbieta Korolczuk (Södertörn University) Averse co-production in studying far-right actors Dounia Largo (Université Libre de Bruxelles) The temporal continuum of violence: gender-based violence, academic censorship and feminist epistemologies in fieldwork Bianka Vida (The International Women’s Initiative) When knowledge becomes politically consequential: Doing gender research across authoritarianism, conflict, and policy engagement

Title	Details
Averse co-production in studying far-right actors	View Paper Details
The temporal continuum of violence: gender-based violence, academic censorship and feminist epistemologies in fieldwork	View Paper Details
When knowledge becomes politically consequential: Doing gender research across authoritarianism, conflict, and policy engagement	View Paper Details