Whether because of covid lockdown, ethics concerns, unexpected conflicts, FCDO travel restrictions, or research clearance in the field, research students seem to increasingly be facing challenges in undertaking field work.
Often these require students to consider changes to their research project, which presents unexpected challenges for supervisors. After supervising a couple of dozen PhDs with these issues rarely coming up, my most recent 2 or 3 students have all been forced to re-evaluate their proposed research design. The good news is that they have produced some excellent work, despite these restrictions.
Strategies students have used to good effect include:
- A historical turn – it’s amazing what is in the archives, and how many there are, even for students whose main interest is in the contemporary. Joe Gazeley published this excellent article about his experience: “Mali-France. Exhumer une voix africaine à partir d’archives européennes et en contexte de terrain fermé”
- Interviewing members of the diaspora — this might include people in the UK, but also in adjacent territories with lower risk. eg Senegal rather than Mali; Kenya rather than Somalia
- Digital strategies – content analysis of social media, digital ethnography, etc
- Cognate cases – I’ve also encouraged students to consider undertaking research in areas that raise similar questions but geographically very different.
As a supervisor, two things that I think work well are:
Consider this a transitional strategy: suggest student try a slight shift of focus or method for a transition paper or a chapter, before re-assessing the entire project. Eg pilot a strategy then assess if the original project can be revisited after a pause or if the new angle is actually quite productive. That way the shift doesn’t feel as traumatic. With luck they get at least a chapter out of it with a different method or bring in a comparative aspect to the initial study. It doesn’t need to mean a complete change of approach.
Think about possible need for a change or addition to the supervisory team: raise this pro-actively, as part of the overall shift. Reach out to people early, especially if a project has become newly interdisciplinary. [at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious] It’s crucial that students feel supported at what is obviously a difficult time.
Others will have more experience and good suggestions. Happy to add them!
Have others written about these issues? Please share links!
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