Researching War Zones and Military Institutions: Reflexivity, Care and Safety

Abstract

The second session of the SGGP online seminar series Doing Gender and Politics Research in Challenging Times and Environments explores the practical, ethical and methodological challenges of conducting gender and politics research in contexts shaped by war and militarization. Drawing on fieldwork experiences in Ukraine and within the Kenya Defence Forces, the three presentations examine how conflict and militarization transform familiar questions about reflexivity, positionality, access, safety and researcher–participant relationships. The presentations highlight various challenges ranging from physical discomfort and safety and asking people living through war to participate in research to studying institutions characterised by hierarchy and restricted access. They also consider how feminist fieldwork approaches can help to navigate the inequalities and vulnerabilities that conflict-setting amplifies and develop strategies for mitigating harm. Presenters: Karmen Tornius (Danish Institute for International relations) Methodological challenges of feminist research in war-time Ukraine Laura A. Dean (Augustana University) Conducting gender and politics research in war zones Rahab Soila Kisio (University of Massachusetts Lowell) Researching gender inside military institutions: Access, ethics, and elite interviews in the Kenya Defence Forces

Title	Details
Methodological challenges of feminist research in war-time Ukraine	View Paper Details
Conducting gender and politics research in war zones	View Paper Details
Researching gender inside military institutions: Access, ethics, and elite interviews in the Kenya Defence Forces	View Paper Details