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Bittersweet Realities: Field Research, Human Rights, And Questioning Intentions, Laura Roost, Ryan M. Lowry, Patrice Mcmahon

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

When Laura Roost and Ryan Lowry returned from their respective graduate fieldwork in Rwanda and the Balkans, their excited but bewildered debriefings were met by Professors Chantal Kalisa and Patrice McMahon, smiling and shaking their heads. Combined, Kalisa and McMahon had had extensive fieldwork experience in Africa, Europe, and Asia, and they saw in this debrief that the next generation of scholars was experiencing the same bittersweet realities of fieldwork that keeps researchers returning to the field despite ambiguities and frustrations. In an ever-connected world, doing fieldwork is necessary even when it seems redundant. Scholars now have large and accessible …