Research ethics and fieldwork in an authoritarian context

The course is open for PhD students working on contemporary East and South-East Asia who can get 3 credits if they fulfill the course requirements. For PhD students enrolled in a Swedish University within the graduate school travel and accommodation will be funded. 

The course is given as a workshop and the workshop will also be open to PhD students and postdoctoral scholars who work on other authoritarian countries, for example in the Middle East, Russia and countries in Central Asia.

The participants are expected to already have a basic understanding of research ethics and relevant laws in the Swedish and European context. The workshop hence focuses on the special ethical issues that can emerge when doing research in or on authoritarian societies. It addresses ethical issues related to different methods, topics and countries. It focuses both on digital methods and fieldwork. It also deals with issues related to surveillance and security of both researchers, informants and collaborators. This includes how one evaluates risk in a politically changing environment and how one navigates so-called red lines. The workshop also discusses how one deals with the stress and pressure that one can experience when studying difficult topics and in an authoritarian context. Furthermore, it will also address how one balances risk and academic transparency when it comes to the sharing of data and disseminating results.

The workshop takes place in Lund 27-28 February 2025 with lectures and discussions on concrete problems and projects. 

Deadline to apply is 29 November.

Confirmed speakers are:

Dr. Pinar Dinc received a Ph. D. in Political Science from the Department of Government at the London School of Economics. Her research interests lie in the areas of nationalism, ethnicity, social movements, memory, diaspora and the conflict-environment nexus in the Middle East and beyond. She is currently an Associate Professor of Political Science at Lund University. She leads the interdisciplinary Exploring Conflict- Environment Interactions for Sustainable Development and Conservation Project, ECO-Syria. 

Dr. Rune Steenberg, an anthropologist researching the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Uyghurs and Central Asia. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in Xinjiang, Central Asia, China, and Indonesia. He received his PhD from Freie Universität Berlin in 2014 and is currently a researcher at Palacky University Olomouc and a main principal investigator of the EU funded project Remote Ethnography of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Merouan Mekouar is an associate professor in the Department of Social Science at York University, specializing in norm diffusion, social movements, and authoritarian practices. His publications include Protest and Mass Mobilization: Authoritarian Collapse and Political Change in North Africa (Routledge, 2016) and New Authoritarian Practices in the Middle East and North Africa (Edinburgh University Press, 2022). He has extensive experience conducting fieldwork in repressive and illiberal contexts, having carried out research in countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. His work has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the German Academic Exchange Service. He is a co-editor of the forthcoming book Doing Research as a Native: A Guide for Fieldwork in Illiberal and Repressive States.

• Course syllabus in English (PDF 452kb - new window)
• Course syllabus in Swedish (PDF 153kb - new window)
• Course literature (PDF 103kb - new window)