Paper short abstract:

In this paper I discuss some dilemmas between obtaining data and keeping out of harm's way I experienced during my field research in eastern Congo. I also describe some of the effects this research had on my state of mind, including anxiety, loneliness, sleep-deprivation, apathy, mistrust and panic.

Paper long abstract:

Conducting fieldwork in a context marked by violent conflict presents a special set of challenges on a daily basis for the researcher. One of the main daily challenges of carrying fieldwork in these conditions is to find an acceptable compromise between obtaining high-quality information and limiting the inherent risks involved with trying to obtain this data. In this paper I discuss some of the challenges I was confronted with trying to fulfill my "vocational mission" as a researcher aspiring to carry out social science on issues related to militia governance, the production of public authority and on the territorialization of ethnicity in eastern Congo. My experience was marked by a fundamental and constant tension between the requirements of rigorous research and avoiding taking undue risks. Whereas my "vocational mission" compelled me to seek an ever deeper level of comprehension through cultural immersion, my apprehension to become too accustomed with a social context marked by threats, violence, high levels of mutual distrust, and abject poverty, pulled me in the opposite direction. This dilemma was further aggravated by my partly self-imposed limited experience with the field and by extension my limited sense of the "rules of the game". In spite of my efforts to keep myself out of harm's way, my immersion profoundly affected my state of mind