Emotions and fieldwork

• Department of Political and Social Sciences

The second session of the QUALIFIE Working Group features a presentation by Gabriella Sanchez (Georgetown University).

Abstract:

Emotions are unspoken elements of fieldwork, and hardly ever figure in research methods classes or trainings. Students and professionals are often expected to simply navigate into research or program implementation settings without any consideration over the impact increasingly contentious settings may have in their ability to carry out work. Furthermore, as conflict, crime and violence become more widespread, there are challenges associated with physical and emotional safety that tend to be silenced by institutions and more senior scholars and practitioners, impacting not only the safety of more junior colleagues but also that of the communities where work is carried out. How can we collectively protect each other in the field? What are strategies to remain safe? How can we navigate often male-dominated, racist, hierarchical terrains where there is limited support for oneself and others? This session will encourage participation and questions from participants, seeking to share insights and potential pathways for support. 

About the speaker:

Gabriella Sanchez is research fellow at Georgetown University's Collaborative for Global Children's Issues. An anthropologist by training, for the last 15 years, she has been researching the facilitation of irregular migration in the Americas, North Africa and Europe, working alongside the actors behind the journeys of people on the migration pathway. She is the author of Migrant Smuggling and Border Crossings (2015), and co-editor with Luigi Achilli of Migrant Smuggling as Collective Strategy and Insurance Policy: Views from the Margins (2018). Her current research in the Americas examines the global expansion of the counter-smuggling regime, and the political organisation of the economies developed around border crossings.