Fieldwork in precarious times: Reflecting on ‘dangerous fields’

Researchers, especially early career scholars, face numerous dangers as they conduct fieldwork on war, displacement, and crime. Yet how the risks of such fieldwork are shaped by growing economic precarity among scholars has gone relatively unexamined until now. This paper explores ways through which the neoliberalization of scholarly labor manifests amid the challenges of what is typically described as research in ‘dangerous fields.’ Describing three specific moments from previous fieldwork toward my dissertation, the paper argues that the 'precarious fieldworker' is increasingly forced into dilemmas that compromise core research principles like caution, rigor, and care. It does so with an eye toward improving discussions and planning for researcher ethics and safety in a world where the risks to scholarly fieldwork are constantly changing.