Challenges of Fieldwork in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations

This interactive session focuses on the practical challenges and ethical dilemmas of conducting fieldwork in conflict and post-conflict situations. The three speakers will share their experiences, and ample time will be given for questions and debate. If you are about to go on fieldwork, or considering fieldwork in your future career, this session will help you to tackle the challenges that lay ahead. If you have done fieldwork in challenging situations, please come along and share your experience!

Paul Gready is the Director of the Centre for Applied Human Rights. He has extensive fieldwork experience researching transitional justice and development. Most of his work has been in South Africa; he is currently the lead researcher on two research projects in Tunisia and Egypt. Paul has written about the ethics and craft of fieldwork - see the special section, 'First Encounters' in the Journal of Human Rights Practice 6, 2, 2014.

Alexandra Maria Kiss is a third-year PhD student at the Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit. Her research focuses on the reintegration of former child combatants into the civilian society in the post-demobilisation period in the context of Colombia. At the beginning of 2014, Alexandra conducted a fieldwork in Colombia, a country with a history of over 50 years of conflict, interviewing former child combatants, government officials and NGO personnel.

Jelena Loncar is a PhD student in the Department of Politics at the University of York. Her PhD research is focused on the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation of ethnic minorities. Jelena conducted part of her fieldwork in Kosovo, a country that gained independence in 2008 after more than a decade long conflict. During her fieldwork in Kosovo, she conducted 22 semi-structured elite interviews.

Refreshments will be provided.

This event is sponsored by the Conflict, Security and Development cluster.