Stories from the Field

In this special final episode, we weave together numerous lessons from throughout the book and podcast, from the value of unstructured time in the field to the surprising parallels between hosting a podcast and doing fieldwork. Using some of our favorite interview clips and book readings, we reflect on the excellent advice our contributors shared and talk about why we love field research.  We also turn the mic on our producers!  If you only listen to one episode from this podcast, this is it.

Producer: Harper Barbaree
Editors: Zeyad Anwar, Abigail Hamilton, Garrett Madden, Gabriel Wallen, Lila Zarella

Fotini Christia, Aliyu Zakayo, and Aidan Milliff offer their perspectives as a full professor, a medical doctor and researcher, and an advanced graduate student, respectively, on the ethical and logistical challenges posed by COVID-19 for field research. Each guest draws on their own experiences to offer insights and suggestions for how to adjust your research approach in the face of the pandemic’s disruptions.

Producer: Harper Barbaree
Editors: Zeyad Anwar, Abigail Hamilton, Garrett Madden, Gabriel Wallen, Lila Zarella

We trace the process of learning field research by talking to a group of excellent undergraduate students (Leah Hickert, Jack MacDonald, and Renata Martinez) and advanced graduate students (Vierelina Fernandez, Ayse Lokmanoglu) about how they first encountered and began to conduct field research in their own communities and all over the world. These student-led discussions provide vibrant reminders to us all about how we learn and evolve as researchers and global citizens.

Producer: Harper Barbaree
Editors: Zeyad Anwar, Abigail Hamilton, Garrett Madden, Gabriel Wallen, Lila Zarella

We welcome Jesse Driscoll from UCSD, Milli Lake from the London School of Economics, and Sarah Parkinson from Johns Hopkins University to talk about teaching field research. How can we teach others how to think about, prepare for, and carry out ethical, valuable field research? All of our guests have taught field research methods to undergraduate and graduate students. In addition, Milli and Sarah run a growing consortium on conducting research in fragile and violence-affected environments, and Jesse just published an educational book on doing global fieldwork. If you want to start teaching about field research (or improve your current approach), this is the episode for you!

Producer: Harper Barbaree
Editors:  Zeyad Anwar, Abigail Hamilton, Garrett Madden, Gabriel Wallen, Lila Zarella 

We welcome Ravi Perry from Howard University and Sarah Zukerman Daly from Columbia University to talk about the crucial but oft-overlooked issues of health and safety in the field—whether in one's home community or in a foreign location. Ravi and Sarah share some of the personal challenges they've faced in the course of their fascinating research on the balancing act of racial politics by Black mayors in majority white districts in the U.S., and the variation in the demilitarization of violent organizations following peace negotiations in Colombia, respectively.  Throughout the episode, we discuss a variety of steps that researchers should take to protect themselves and those around them.

Producers: Harper Barbaree, John Gehman, Gabriel Wallen
Editors: Sam Biasi, Shavonne Farell, Alyssa Iferenta, Madison Sarka

We talk to Enze Han from the University of Hong Kong and Robert Ross from Boston College about the significant potential and challenges of doing research in China. Our guests reflect on everything from their experiences building academic relationships with colleagues at Chinese universities to how local perceptions of researchers' own identities can shape the research process.   

Producers: Harper Barbaree, John Gehman, Alyssa Iferenta
Editors: Sam Biasi, Madison Sarka, Shavonne Farrell

We welcome Matthew Cancian from MIT, Kristin Fabbe from Harvard Business School, and Kristin Michelitch from Vanderbilt University to talk about conducting field surveys and experiments. We discuss what goes into designing an experiment or survey, developing local relationships, and navigating the ethical and logistical challenges of conducting complex research projects with multi-member research teams.

Producers: Harper Barbaree, John Gehman, Alyssa Iferenta 
Editors: Zeyad Anwar, Sam Biasi, Shavonne Farrell, Abigail Hamilton, Garrett Madden, Madison Sarka 

We welcome Zoe Marks from Harvard Kennedy School and Will Reno from Northwestern University to talk about doing research in insecure or conflict-affected situations, and learning how to keep our research participants, our teams, and ourselves safe in difficult environments.

Producers: Harper Barbaree, John Gehman
Editors: Hannah Jones, Garrett Madden, Gabriel Wallen, Lila Zarrella

Once you're in "the field," how can you most effectively gain knowledge and collect information? How do you build trust and connections with local leaders? How to show respect and become part of a new community? How to access and decipher classified archival documents? We welcome John McCauley from The University of Maryland, Rich Nielsen from MIT, and Lindsey O'Rourke from Boston College to discuss the creative strategies they used to navigate each of these research challenges in Central and West Africa, the Middle East, and the United States.

Producers: Harper Barbaree, John Gehman
Editor: John Gehman

How do our identities and lives outside of academia shape our fieldwork? And what does that look like in a region like the Middle East? We talk to Carla Abdo-Katsipis from Wesleyan University, Nadya Hajj from Wellesley College, and Ian Lustick from the University of Pennsylvania about doing research across the Middle East, and reflect on how our personal backgrounds shape the experience of doing field research. 

Producers: Harper Barbaree, John Gehman, Alyssa Iferenta
Editors: Sam Biasi, Shavonne Farrell, Madison Sarka