Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-cx56b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-13T04:46:51.319Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On Academic Research, Legitimacy, and Fieldwork in Times of Crisis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2022

Ali Kassem*
Affiliation:
Institute of Advanced Studies and Al-Waleed Center, University of Edinburgh, UK

Extract

In thinking through the stark differences in how a research project in Lebanon was received in 2018 versus 2020, this paper seeks to reflect on the fragile relationship between academic researcher and community, on the legitimacy of research in moments of crisis, and on the complexity of pursuing decolonial research in the contemporary West Asia North Africa region.

Type
Curator's Corner
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Middle East Studies Association of North America, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Harris, W., Lebanon: A History, 600-2011 (Oxford University Press, 2012)Google Scholar; Salibi, Kamal, A House of Many Mansions (I.B. Tauris and Co K., 1998)Google Scholar; Traboulsi, Fawwaz, A History of Modern Lebanon (Pluto Press, 2007)Google Scholar.

2 Falen, D.J., “The ‘Other’ Gender?: Reflections on Fieldwork in Benin,” Men and Masculinities 11.2 (2008): 164–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar, https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X08315094; M. Walker, “Feminist Methodologies,” in Research Methods in the Social Sciences, eds., Somekh, B., Lewin, C. (London: SAGE Publications, 2005).

3 Smith, Linda Tuhiwai, Decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples (London: Zed Books, 1999)Google Scholar.

4 Maldonado-Torres, Nelson, “The time and space of race: reflections on David Theo Goldberg's interrelational and comparative methodology,” Patterns of Prejudice 44.1 (2010): 116CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Mignolo, Walter, Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking (Princeton University Press, 2012), 20Google Scholar; Anthony Rossi, Steven Rynne, Alison Nelson, “Doing Whitefella Research in Blackfella Communities in Australia: Decolonizing Method in Sports Related Research,” Quest 65.1 (January 2013): 116–31, https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2012.749799.

6 Julia Brannen, “Working Qualitatively and Quantitatively,” in Qualitative Research Practice, eds., Clive Seale, Jaber Gubrium, Giampietro Gobo, David Sliverman (California: Thousand Oaks, 2007); Darder, Antonia, “Decolonizing interpretive research: subaltern sensibilities and the politics of voice,” Qualitative Research Journal 18.2 (2018): 94104, https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-D-17-00056CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Adams, Glenn, “Decolonizing Methods: African Studies and Qualitative Research,” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 31.4 (2014): 467–74, https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407514521765CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Al-Hardan, Anaheed, “Decolonizing Research on Palestinians: Towards Critical Epistemologies and Research Practices,” Qualitative Inquiry 20.1 (2014): 6171, https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800413508534CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Datta, Ranjan, “Decolonizing Both Researcher and Research and Its Effectiveness in Indigenous Research,” Research Ethics 14.2 (April 2018): 124, https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016117733296;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Zavala, Miguel, “What Do We Mean by Decolonizing Research Strategies? Lessons from Decolonizing, Indigenous Research Projects in New Zealand and Latin America,” Decolonisation Indegeneity, Education & Society 2.1 (2013)Google Scholar.