Research issues examined

Political and practical challenges concerning research in the global South were scrutinised when master's student Sian Butcher hosted a workshop on qualitative fieldwork methodologies.

Her seminar, Problematising Qualitative Fieldwork, Negotiating 'the Field' and Back Again, was organised by Butcher, a master's student in human geography, as part of her Potter Charitable Trust Fellowship requirements.

She is finalising her work, a comparative study on women's narratives and housing privatisation in local community Valhalla Park and Lusaka, Zambia. One of the questions Butcher raises is how individuals and communities benefit from fieldwork research.

"People give their stories and time, but what do we give back?" she asked, challenging academics and students to think about how they contribute to social change.

At the workshop, students and academics had a chance to share their experience in panel discussions of many research-related issues, such as negotiating access, conversations regarding the body and identity, and being an insider or an outsider to communities.