Please join us for the next Centre for Transnational Studies Seminar on Wednesday 6 May from 5.00pm-7.00pm in 65/1177.

Challenging research settings: gender, risk, and resistance

Prof. Helen Sampson

Cardiff University

Tankers, container vessels, bulk carriers, and refrigerated fruit ships….these are some of the vessels I have experienced when undertaking ‘on board’ fieldwork in my time working at the Seafarers International Research Centre. There is a certain romance associated with the idea of doing research at sea, yet in the main this is misplaced.

Ships are monotonous, dangerous, institutionalised, predominantly male, environments from which there is little chance of respite or escape. As such, it is fair to say that doing research on a deep-sea cargo vessel carries with it a number of challenges and risks. In this account I will focus on the experiences I have had of undertaking fieldwork in these particular settings over a period of sixteen years.

I will explore some of the more general challenges associated with doing research of this nature before moving on to consider some of  those that relate more specifically to the gender of both the researcher and the researched.