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Dear all, Please see below for information about a workshop being organised at the University of Manchester on 'Researching Conflict'. Abstracts will be accepted until Thursday 28 February. Please feel free to disseminate. Apologies for cross-posting. Best wishes, Melanie --------------------------------------- Researching Conflict: Methods and Ethics A methods@manchester workshop Co-organised by Centre for Translation & Intercultural Studies<http://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/subjects/tis/>, Division of Languages & Intercultural Studies, School of Arts, Languages & Cultures Global Urban Research Centre<http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/gurc/>, School of Environment and Development Geography, School of Environment and Development<http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/gurc/> Date: Thursday 18 April 2013, Venue: to be confirmed Extended Deadline for Submission of Abstracts: 28 February 2013 Attendance is free and open to doctoral students and early career researchers in other UK institutions Registration Form and Provisional Programme Available at http://www.methods.manchester.ac.uk/events/2013-04-18/index.shtml Call for Contributions from Doctoral Students and Early Career Researchers This workshop is aimed at doctoral students and early career researchers, and focuses on different methodological approaches to the study of conflict and their ethical implications across disciplinary environments. Definitions of conflict vary from a focus on observable, often violent conflict at one end of the continuum, to treating conflict as a pervasive phenomenon that is inherent in all social interaction as a consequence of unequal power and incompatible goals among participants. The workshop foregrounds methodological and ethical issues involved in researching instances of observable, ongoing conflict and post conflict situations, which may include the asylum system, some forms of crisis response, environmental conflict, urban violence, and artistic and cultural responses to violent conflict, among other topics. The workshop features two plenaries, by Professor Hilary Footitt (University of Reading) and Professor Paul Gready (University of York), and a concluding roundtable with participants from the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, the School of Environment and Development and the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures. It also features two panels of presentations by doctoral students and early career researchers. Abstracts are invited from researchers working on themes related to observable, violent conflict and/or post conflict situations, with a focus on methodological issues and ethical implications. Abstracts of 250 words should be submitted by 22 February 2013 to Lisa Ficklin ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) and/or Melanie Lombard ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>). Please also include a title for the proposed presentation and details of your PhD topic, discipline and School. Given limited capacity for panel presentations, abstracts will be selected on the basis of quality and fit to theme. Selected presenters will be expected to attend the full workshop and participate in discussions. Plenary 1: Archives of Conflict and the Bandita* Researcher Professor Hilary Footitt (University of Reading) Using specific examples from personal research practice, this paper will examine four questions relating to war/ conflict research. Firstly, it will consider the nature of Archives as symbols/forces of power, and explore their limitations for conflict research, with particular emphasis on the ‘missingness’ and ‘serendipity’ of Archives. Secondly, it will look at the experience of ‘growing your own archive’, developing an eclectic and organic approach to constituting an archive of practice (including types of archives, personal papers, newspapers, oral history, interviews, maps, photographs, memorabilia, cultural production). Thirdly, it will suggest pathways of analysis through this new archive, with an emphasis on following processes, and seeing narrative cartographies. Finally, the paper will engage with questions relating to ethics and the archive, in particular arguing for an ethics of attention and linguistic respect. * Bandita: an image (suggested by Linda Singer) of the writer as intellectual outlaw, raiding the texts of others, and taking what she finds most useful: ‘The remains recycled make a different map, and mark new intersections between discourses, disciplines, forms of “knowledge” ’ ( L. Singer, Erotic Welfare: Sexual Theory and Politics in the Age of Epidemic. New York: Routledge, 1993, 22). Plenary 2: Conducting Field Research on Conflict Professor Paul Gready (University of York) Ethical codes for conducting research - such as informed consent - are predominantly individualistic and devised for conventional research settings and outputs. Research on conflict, or in post conflict settings, often takes place on different terms. My presentation will discuss three challenges associated with conducting such research. (1) Relationships between interviewer, interviewee and community. (2) Negotiating shifting patterns of violence and conflict. (3) Control and ownership of testimony and research in a media age. Through a discussion of these challenges the presentation will provide some thoughts on what constitutes an 'enabling ethics' for conflict research. Melanie Lombard Hallsworth Fellow Global Urban Research Centre University of Manchester Humanities Bridgeford Street Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL _______________________________________________________ [log in to unmask] An urban geography discussion and announcement forum List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/URB-GEOG-FORUM Maintained by: RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group UGRG Home Page: http://www.urban-geography.org.uk