Conducting fieldwork in challenging environments: Insights from research in China
This 'Scholars in Conversation' event brings together three scholars with a shared research interest and experience in navigating the complexities of conducting research in challenging environments on politically sensitive topics in China. Beyond the basic ethical considerations, Dr Pablo A Rodríguez-Merino, Dr David Stroup and Dr David Tobin will draw from their experience to offer invaluable insights into the nuanced local intricacies that will benefit researchers who are grappling with similar challenges.
David R Stroup is a lecturer of Chinese Politics at the University of Manchester. His work focuses on everyday ethnic politics under authoritarian rule with a particular focus on the impacts of party-state policies on the daily practices that sustain the identity of China's Muslim minorities. His first monograph, Pure and True: The Everday Politics of Ethnicity for China's Hui Muslims, examined the impact of urbanization and authoritarian policies on the daily practice Hui identities in communities across China. His current work explores everyday expressions of Islamophobia and ethnonationalist exclusion on China's social media platforms.
Dr Pablo A Rodríguez-Merino is a senior lecturer in the Department of Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he teaches on International Relations, New and Traditional Security Challenges, and Conflict Analysis and Responses, among other themes. His research explores political violence, terrorism, and the dynamics of securitization in the context of violent conflict in Xinjiang (China) and the Uyghur crisis, including through narrative, gender, and historical analysis.
Dr David Tobin is a Lecturer in East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield. His research questions the relationship between identity and security in global politics, specifically Uyghur identities and narratives of nation, race, and colonialism in Chinese policymaking. His book with Cambridge University Press, Securing China's Northwest Frontier: Identity and Insecurity in Xinjiang, is based on several years of ethnographic fieldwork and analyses ethnic policy in contemporary China and its impact on Han-Uyghur relations. His current research projects focus on genocide, transnational repression, and social survival in the Uyghur diaspora.
Registration will close two hours before the event begins.