Asking Sensitive Questions: Trust, Trauma, and Transnational Repression

Conducting fieldwork on politically sensitive topics is a challenging task where researchers often struggle to find a balance between safety and accessibility. Since the “People's War on Terror” in the Uyghur Region, studies have aimed to understand the impact of Chinese government policies targeting Uyghurs from diverse perspectives, ranging from global implications to individual experiences. The present talk focuses on the methodological concerns and challenges in conducting interviews on sensitive political issues with different target groups, especially when the researcher’s identity becomes the most critical risk factor.

The speaker is Yalkun Uluyol (Koç University), a scholar of comparative politics and international political economy with a PhD in International Relations.

Join the lecture via MS Teams: meeting ID:  356 955 200 229, password: CMmLtN