[EDLING:2347] CFP: Conducting Research Abroad: Positionality, Methodology, and Practice

[Francis M. Hult]

Conducting Research Abroad:  Positionality, Methodology, and Practice (Book 
project)

Call for chapter proposals for the collection Conducting Research Abroad:  
Positionality, Methodology and Practice to be submitted for publication by 
August 2007. 

Deadline for chapter proposal (500-1000 words):  March 7, 2007 

Deadline for the completed manuscript (15-20 pp. including notes and works 
cited) for accepted proposals:  May 15, 2007. 

Contact:  Lise-Hélène Trouilloud (lvtrouilloud at csupomona.edu) or Anjana Narayan 
(anarayan at csupomona.edu) 

This edited collection presents an interdisciplinary effort to define the 
empirical, methodological and practical implications of conducting 
undergraduate or graduate research abroad.  As its primary goal, this project 
sets out to analyze the procedures that are most predominant in current 
research, and to examine how these procedures encapsulate and project the 
imbalances (or biases) that characterize scholarly initiatives in the west. 

The inequality of power relationships is often overlooked when conducting 
research abroad.  When carrying out research studies overseas, researchers from 
some groups have the advantage of easy access to other groups, networks or 
organizations and access to specific knowledge that is influenced by dynamics 
like race, nationality, religion or gender.  Furthermore, research students and 
scholars have shown a marked preference for "high theory" and the realm of the 
abstract over empirical work, a trend that further highlights intellectual 
colonization and knowledge hierarchies.  The objective of this collection is to 
examine how knowledge is generated and then shared via frameworks that are 
accessible, as well as applicable, to both national and international target 
audiences. 

With this focus, the book is a resourceful initiative that seeks to share 
multiple research methodologies and to promote theoretical, empirical and 
methodological cross-fertilization between different academic disciplines and 
practices.  This collection seeks to draw insights from authors who specialize 
in diverse methods ranging from ethnography, archival research and oral 
histories, to quantitative data analysis and experiments used in social 
scientific and humanities research to extract key ideas and approaches that 
overlap or resonate in different areas of study.

The spectrum of issues that this collection aims to illuminates also includes 
bureaucratic considerations of obtaining visas, foreign ministry clearance, 
politics of IRB requirements such as 'informed consent'; logistical 
considerations such as time for travel, rhythm of the local place, language and 
religious barriers and access to technology; finally collaborative 
considerations such as building networks and research collaborations, obtaining 
research funding, and - most importantly - developing potential avenues to use 
results of the research for the benefit of the study participants and their 
families and communities.

We seek contributors in fields such as history, anthropology, sociology, 
literature and related disciplines with research experience in various 
geographic areas across the globe.  

Please send chapter proposals of 500-1000 words as a Word attachment to Lise-
Hélène Trouilloud (lvtrouilloud at csupomona.edu) or Anjana Narayan 
(anarayan at csupomona.edu) by March 7, 2007.