Safety and Security for Fieldwork/In-situ Research

You can register for the October edition of the course through this form.

 

Date: June 2025

Location: ISS

ECs: 1.5

Tuition: Free for members, 400 euros for non-members

Teachers: Prof. Dr. Dorothea Hilhorst, Dr. Rodrigo Mena

Course description:

When conducting in-situ research or fieldwork, researchers often operate within complex and dynamic social and political contexts. From criminality, illness, and engagement with authoritarian authorities, to cybersecurity threats and disasters, researchers, research participants and collaborators face a wide range of risks that might affect their safety and security and the quality of the research process itself. 

 

This course is designed to assist researchers in conducting their research in complex, remote or hazardous environments as safely, securely and ethically as possible, both for those working within their home country and for foreigners.

 

The content is organized into three main groups: (a) The main frameworks and theories of research safety and security with a focus on risk assessment and research ethics; (b) a review of specific fieldwork-related risks and actions designed to prevent them from happening; and (c) on preparedness and contingency planning so the researcher knows what to do if the risks become manifest.

 

The course has a workshop format with a two-fold teaching-learning methodology: one, through lecture sessions; two, through personal and group exercises on fieldwork research methodologies and techniques, risk assessment and risk reduction and safety and security. The course will also feature input from guest experts on mental health and wellbeing and cybersecurity.

 

The course also provides tools and forms that the participants can use to prepare themselves before and during fieldwork. These tools combine safety and security considerations with research methodologies to inform and support knowledge production.

 

By the end of the course, participants are expected to understand the relevance of safety and security considerations in research, understand major risks related to fieldwork research, and have an enhanced understanding of key preparations before, during and after in-situ research.

 

The course is equivalent to 1.5 ECs of course work towards those required for a PhD degree. To be awarded credit, full-time attendance of the course is compulsory, as is the study of the prescribed preparatory reading. The course requires the active participation of the students. 

Register for the course through the form linked here.