Following on from the DSA2024 presentation on Why Are You Not Doing Research in Your Home Country? Dissecting Expectations of ‘Developing Countries’ Researchers, the presenters Ilaha Abasli (ISS NL); Ahmed El Assal (International Institute of Social Studies); and Yasmine Hafez (SOAS University of London) are editing a book on Global South researchers in development studies: Positionality, power and vulnerability.

The editors are looking for contributions from researchers from the Global South to discuss their fieldwork experiences and reflections, thus generating a grounded theoretical proposition on Global South researchers’ reflexivity and positionality in the field of development studies.

The book project aims to highlights and bridges the experiences of Global South researchers in development studies, which are usually concealed or censored for the fear that they would affect academic analytical production.

The book will centralise the voices and experiences of early career Global South researchers in fieldwork encounters, methodological approaches and transboundary knowledge production. Te compiled contributions of fieldwork experiences means the book will speak to a larger discussion on the role of researchers, the importance of fieldwork, power dynamics in fieldwork, mental and physical challenges, and the significance of fieldwork beyond data collection to a real-life experience that will shape the researcher’s positionality for years to come.

Read the full call and book background on the ISS website.