Researching Conflict and Humanitarian Contexts: Feminist Methodologies, Ethics, Dilemmas, and Knowledge Production
Course Overview
Research in conflict and humanitarian settings is often seen as a technical task focused on data collection under tough circumstances. However, this course argues that such research is inherently political, relational, and ethically debated. Main methodologies in International Relations, humanitarian policy, and global health favor technocratic, quantitative, and neutral knowledge, often marginalizing local insights, concealing violence and abandonment, and maintaining colonial and geopolitical hierarchies. This course responds to interdisciplinary debates on feminist, decolonial, ethical, and political approaches to evidence. It provides students with methodological tools based on both academic theory and the realities of conflict and displacement. Emphasizing interdisciplinary methods, it aims to connect debates across International Relations, anthropology, global health, and humanitarian fields. It also seeks to decolonize research practices and highlight the experiences of communities affected by conflict.
Seminar Leaders
Dr. Khuloud Alsaba
PhD Candidate
University of Edinburgh, Global Health Policy Unit
Dr. Khuloud Alsaba is a scholar of global public health with experience in both development and humanitarian sectors in the Middle East and the Arab region, working with state and international aid actors. Her research focuses on political and social determinants of health and health inequalities in areas of conflict and political instability. She currently completing her PhD at the University of Edinburgh’s Global Health Policy Unit.
Dr. Mohammed Nour Audi
Doctor of Public Health Candidate
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Dr. Mohammad Nour Audi, M.D. is interested in population health and its intersection with peacebuilding and state-building in post-conflict and other fragile settings. He completed medical training and residency in internal medicine in Syria, and worked in the Syrian Red Crescent Society as a paramedic until the initial phase of the conflict in Syria. Dr. Audi then moved to work with the international humanitarian sector, focusing on the rehabilitation of primary health centers and establishing community-based programs for the management of non-communicable diseases.
Syllabus and Readings
Course Schedule
THURSDAY, OCT 8
Week 1: Researching War and Humanitarian Crisis: Why Methods Matter
Hosted on Zoom
Suggested Readings:
- Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies
Further Reading:
- Nordstrom and Robben, Fieldwork Under Fire
THURSDAY, OCT 15
Week 2: Feminist and Decolonial Methodologies
Hosted on Zoom
THURSDAY, OCT 22
Week 3: Ethics-in-Action: Research Ethics Beyond Institutional Review Boards
Hosted on Zoom
THURSDAY, OCT 29
Week 4: Research Design in Conflict Settings: Between Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
Hosted on Zoom
THURSDAY, NOV 5
Week 5: Interviewing Under Fire: Conducting Fieldwork in Violent Contexts
Hosted on Zoom
THURSDAY, NOV 12
Week 6: Humanitarianism, Data, and the Politics of Evidence
Themes
Hosted on Zoom
THURSDAY, NOV 19
Week 7: Preparing for Fieldwork and Managing Power Dynamics in the Field
Themes
Hosted on Zoom
THURSDAY, NOV 26
Week 8: Digital Methods, Security, and Research Risk
Hosted on Zoom
THURSDAY, DEC 3
Week 9: Feminists, Participatory and Community-Centered Research
Hosted on Zoom
THURSDAY, DEC 10
Week 10: Writing Conflict, Representation, and Decolonial Research Futures
Themes
Hosted on Zoom
Certificates of Satisfactory Completion
Participants who attend 8 out of 10 complete seminar sessions are eligible to receive a Certificate of Satisfactory Completion signed by the Dean of The New School for Social Research.