24-27 November 2026
Campus Condorcet / Bâtiment Recherche Sud
5, cours des Humanités
93 322 Aubervilliers

Synopsis

Research is always conducted within particular social, political, and institutional contexts that shape access to the field and relationships with the people and institutions involved. These conditions are neither fixed nor entirely predictable. Access to field sites, archives, data, local populations, or institutional and non-institutional actors may be facilitated, negotiated, restricted, or interrupted over time. Particular political and historical moments – from the Covid-19 pandemic and wars to diplomatic tensions or changing forms of authoritarian control – can profoundly alter the possibilities for conducting research. At the same time, researchers’ own positions and relationships to the field may evolve, requiring them to adapt their methods, renegotiate access and relationships, or reconsider what research is possible in the first place.

Drawing on previous experiences of doctoral training UTAB conducted in the framework of the INSHS-CNRS funded research network CREMA, “Reflexivities Across Borders” invites participants to reflect collectively on how these shifting conditions shape the ways we access and engage with our fields, the methodological choices we make, and ultimately the knowledge we produce. Particular attention will be paid to researchers’ positionality in relation to their field sites, research topics, state authorities, institutions, and other actors. How do nationality, gender, class, age, language, professional status, or other forms of social difference affect access, interactions, and the range of methods researchers can mobilize? How do these changing and differentiated ways of conducting fieldwork, in turn, shape the kinds of knowledge we are able to produce? How do researchers negotiate different forms of proximity and distance,
familiarity and alterity? And how do these relationships change over time, as both researchers and
research contexts evolve?

Rather than approaching reflexivity as a distinct stage of research, the workshop considers it an ongoing process that can take place before, during, and after fieldwork. It provides a space to discuss:
– concrete experiences of gaining, losing, or renegotiating access;
– methodological adaptations in sensitive or authoritarian contexts;
– relationships with interlocutors and institutions;
– and the ethical and epistemological questions that emerge from these situations.

Reflexivities Across Borders is designed to bring together researchers from a diversified range of contexts. By putting experiences from different contexts into conversation, including with research conducted elsewhere, it asks what can be learned across field sites that are too often approached through separate regional or geopolitical frameworks.

The four-day workshop is conceived as a collaborative space combining presentations and collective discussions with dedicated periods for writing, reading, and exchanging feedback.
Participants will work from their own research experiences and materials, while engaging with those of others. Through this alternation between discussion and writing, the workshop aims to move from individual experiences towards a shared reflection on the methodological and epistemological implications of doing research across borders and under changing conditions.
The workshop will ultimately provide the basis for developing a collective publication project, bringing together contributions on reflexivity, access, positionality, and the changing conditions of field-based research.