![]() ![]() ![]() While all these initiatives are of paramount importance to cast a light on the problems connected to research security, two missing links should be taken into consideration. Provided that the most effective “weapon” at researchers’ disposal is research itself, the Scholars at Risk Network has also developed a monitoring project ( Academic Freedom Monitor) and is currently testing a prototype survey/index to measure the health of the higher education sector worldwide. The Scholars at Risk Network, the Network for Education and Academic Rights and the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics are committed not only to advocacy and alert, but also to the tangible support to scholars under threat, suffering prosecution on improper or false charges or wrongfully imprisoned (for instance the Scholar Rescue Fund). Thirdly, that Copernican Revolution is leading to the creation or, where already existing, the consolidation of inclusive communities of researchers speaking out against restrictions to academic freedom, which are increasingly taking the shape of endangering the well-being or even the survival of researchers themselves. Secondly, the reconsideration of the structural constraints affecting researchers during their fieldwork has also involved the formalization of guidelines and codes of conduct (for example, the one issued by the Social Research Association, the RESPECT Project, the Brunswick Declaration on Research Ethics, Integrity and Governance), and the emergence of an interesting strand of self-reflective literature about research security which complements the design of specific protocols and procedures. For example, the School of Oriental and African Studies in London has recently arranged a “ workshop on cross-cultural research”: quite tellingly, the latter was partially contracted to “Aegis Response” and its consultants – previous intelligence, Special Forces and armies officers. ![]() Whereas ethical review processes are currently included as a routinized step in the research planning of a significant number of institutions, they often focus more on the treatment of research participants (interviewees, respondents…) than on the safety of researchers in the field however, a sort of Copernican Revolution has recently happened, as shown by the organisation of risk-management trainings scheduled as part of the PhD coursework. Research is about the disclosure of remote contexts and the removal of the veil of Maya from complex dynamics: on the one hand, it has a fundamental social value which often is neither publicly acknowledged nor officially protected on the other hand, it implies the immersion of researches in risky environments. I met with a Kyrgyz activist, among others: we engaged in a friendly, lively and open conversation, during which he admitted that “quite a lot of people thinks ‘why are you coming here, you must be a spy, why should I be talking to you’…”.Īll this led me to tentatively re-organise my chaotic thoughts about research security and academic freedom: as effectively put by Edward Schatz in his recent contribution for the Monkey Cage, research is about having access to information, collecting data, disseminating knowledge and replying to uncomfortable intellectual questions. That happened in the same days when I was going through the recordings of some of the interviews that I have carried out for my PhD research project. ![]() Several statements of support have been issued by different academic associations, universities, NGOs as well as by individual professors and politicians a chain of seminars have been organized across the world (Washington, Canberra, Exeter, Toronto, Paris, Freiburg, Astana, Bishkek and Heidelberg) on the topic “ Researchers at Risk”. He has been put under arrest two weeks ago – after he had interviewed an opposition leader in Khorog (Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, Tajikistan). In the last few weeks the case of Alexander Sodiqov has triggered a wave of apprehension and solidarity among transnational multiform networks of scholars and activists involved in a global campaign for his release.Īlexander Sodiqov is a PhD Student at the University of Toronto, involved in a research project about “Conflict Management in Central Asia”, which is part of broader programme funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Rising Powers and Interdependent Futures). ![]()
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