„We are at war“: Reflections on positionality and research as negotiation in post-2022 Ukraine

Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine has resulted in a massive boost of knowledge production by Ukrainian experts, who discuss the causes and consequences of the invasion, comment on methods of waging war, and urge for appropriate responses by the international community. In an attempt to understand effects of the war on the role of Ukrainian experts as knowledge producers through an interview-based study, our research tandem has encountered a number of ethical, emotional and methodological challenges that require a separate reflection. This paper offers such a reflection drawing on our autoethnographic accounts and careful documentation of the research process. It discusses how our positionalities, i.e., self-projected and perceived belonging to a particular social group (based on professional occupation, ethnicity and gender) as well as our political views and emotions resulting from our encounters with interviewees, influenced our research endeavour. Taking account of the evolving academic debates in IR and Conflict Studies around ethical and methodological issues of doing fieldwork, we elaborate on our experiences of doing hybrid field research (including online and in-person interviews) under unprecedented circumstances of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine. Advocating for ‘emotional sensibility’ (Pearlman 2022) and reflexive approaches to conducting fieldwork, we seek to contribute to the literature on the ethics of doing research in highly volatile environments and hope to offer guidance to future students of war and peace in Eastern Europe and Eurasia.