The “Programa de Becas Internacionales de Posgrado” by the Argentinian Ministry of Education has put together some useful information about postgraduate scholarships.
For foreigners that want to study in Argentina, click here.
For Argentinians that want to study abroad, click here.
As posted in the news section recently, blog members Susan Hoppert-Flaemig, Verena Brähler, Juan Carlos Ruiz, and Alejandra Otamendi presented a panel at the ISA-PSS Joint Conference on “Security Challenges in an Evolving World” in Budapest on 27 June 2013.
One of our motives of establishing researchingsecurity.org was the wish to create a network to share our experiences, questions, doubts, and successes as young scholars in our field. Methodological and ethical issues are certainly an important part of our research and, from our point of view, require constant debates.
We therefore proposed and realised a panel on “Researching (In)Security and Violence: Diffusion in Methodology” at the Budapest Conference. Drawing on our own field research, we used the panel to discuss topics ranging from practical aspects such as gaining field access to deeper ethical concerns about cross-cultural research:
The presentations can be found here.
The presentations were followed by a lively debate about obstacles and risks in researching in a vulnerable and violent environment and about the usefulness of ethical standards; and we very much appreciated the input of our discussant Edmund Pries from Wilfried Laurier University (Canada).
Having attended a number of presentations of other panels at the conference, we got the impression that a lot of security research is still being undertaken by those disciplines that traditionally dominate security research, namely political science and international relations. Within these disciplines, many projects were working with quantitative data. Contributions from other disciplines such as anthropology and sociology as well as projects working with qualitative data were less represented.
Reflecting on the implications of this, we agreed that our network is open to a diverse range of methodologies and disciplines studying security. However, we also came to the conclusion that our particular strengths are expertise in grassroots and hands-on approaches, as well as heightened awareness for the implications of our research for the communities and societies we are working with.
In an interview conducted by Felicitas Röhrig, Researchingsecurity members talk about their experiences of researching security, organised crime and violence in Latin America.
The interview was published on the website of our partner organisation, the Latin American Bureau.
Researching Security is a LAB Partner organisation which has established a blog to share research interests and experience. RS members were interviewed by Felicitas Röhrig.
Researching security, violence and organised crime is fraught with methodological and ethical concerns and presents common barriers across disciplinary fields. These issues become particularly pressing for early career researchers with little experience, few connections, and scarce resources. As such, a blog entitled Researching Security (www.researchingsecurity.org) was established in 2011 by PhD students as a means through which to diffuse experiences in relation to criminal, (in)security and violence research. Not only is the platform provided useful to discuss common problems, competing methodologies and share concerns over ethics, the forum has also proved to be popular around the world – reaching a concentrated range of readers and commentators in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, the UK and the US – but also as far as Indonesia and Syria.
As in 2013, the blog has become partners with one of the leading UK Think Tanks on Latin American politics, the Latin American Bureau (www.lab.org.uk). In June 2013, some of the blog members will speak on the Joint International Conference of the Peace and Security Studies and International Studies Association (PSS-ISA), presenting and discussing field research insights and techniques with a wider audience. In anticipation of the conference, some blog members have talked about their thoughts, motivation and experiences in their field.
The recent partnership with LAB and your invitation to speak on the PSS-ISA conference in Budapest show that there is considerable demand for the information you share on the Researching Security Blog. Can you tell me what gave you the idea to create it in the first place?
Verena Brähler: Some of us got to know each other on the annual PILAS Conference at the University of Cambridge in 2011. We realised that there was a huge lack of information on how to research security, organised crime and violence. At the same time we were very motivated and eager to challenge outdated analytical frameworks on how to research these issues. That’s why we decided to create a platform for better exchange between PhD students around the world who work on similar issues. Our blog is this platform.
Please continue reading here.
We would like to draw your attention to our PhD researchers’ conference papers that are now online and offer valuable insight into researching security and violence, principally in Latin America.
2013
From physical to symbolic urban periphery: the heterogeneity of the inner-slum, Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS) Annual Conference, University of Manchester, UK, by Juan Carlos Ruiz (April 2013)
2012
A Salvadoran Turnaround? The FMLN’s Response to Citizen Security Needs. 54 International Congress of Americanists, Vienna, by Susan Hoppert-Flämig (July 2012)
What can anthropologists offer to Security Studies? A report from the RAI Anthropology in the World Conference June 2012, London / UK, by Jenna Murray de López (June 2012)
Rural-Urban Migration in Chiapas, Mexico: Antenatal Violence and the Disappearing of the Midwife, Congreso Internacional Feminismo y Migración: Intervención Social y Acción Política, by Jenna Murray de López (February 2012)
2011
Inecesárea: The Violence of Childbirth in Mexico, International Conference on Gendered Violence, University of Bristol, UK, by Jenna Murray de López (November 2011)
2010
The Crisis of Forced Internal Displacement and the Struggle over the Right to Citizenship in Medellin, Workshop Panel: The Challenges of Access to Citizenship Rights, Latin American Studies Association Conference (LASA), by Elizabeth Kerr (2010)
Congratulations to Susan Hoppert-Flaemig, Egoitz Gago Anton and everyone else at the Peace, Conflict and Development Journal (University of Bradford) who has been involved in the release of the latest special issue.
Please find all articles here.
“We dedicate this Special Issue to our dear PhD colleague Elizabeth Kerr who died of cancer on 4 January 2013. Elizabeth contributed to this collection of articles by helping us to articulate our ideas of strengthening peace research on Latin America. We are very grateful for her valuable support; we miss her brilliant ability of constructive criticism in our academic work, and we miss her as a great friend.”
Congratulations to our blog member Kari Mariska Pries who has published her first article for our partner organisation, the Latin American Bureau.
Published on: Thu Mar 21, 2013
Violence dominated conversation in El Salvador during the decade leading up to 2012. Daily, newspaper front pages carried photos of the most gruesome murders of the last 24 hours. Elections were won and lost on a government’s response to the country’s “security situation”. In 2011 El Salvador’s homicide rate of 72 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants was the second highest in the world, only behind that of neighbouring Honduras. Extortions, kidnappings and armed robberies were common and travelling on public buses meant taking your life into your own hands. The country was one of the most violent places on the planet.
Salvadoran citizens demanded forceful repression to combat crime and increase security. Their top worry was the visible threat posed by El Salvador’s violent and notorious street gangs, MS-13 and M-18. The government under President Mauricio Funes responded by placing military patrols on the streets and running large anti-gang operations (read more).
Revista Digital de Antropologia e Filosofia
The Journal Conexões Parciais (Anthropology) is calling for articles, essays, analytical reviews and interviews produced by undergratuate, graduate, postgraduate students and Professors.
It is an indexed (ISSN 2238-0159), based on peer-review and open-access Journal linked primarily to the State University of São Paulo “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP).
Editorial board.
Chief-Editor
Prof. Paulo Santilli (Unesp)
Responsible Editors
Leif Grünewald (PPGA/UFF)
Priscila Santos da Costa (University of St. Andrews)
Conselho Editorial
Prof. Roy Wagner (University of Virginia)
Prof.a Renata Medeiros Paoliello (Unesp)
Prof. Edgar Teodoro da Cunha (Unesp)
Prof. José Antonio Kelly Luciani (Ufsc)
Prof. Paride Bolletin (Università di Perugia)
Prof.a Silvia Maria Schmuziger Carvalho (Unesp)
Justin Shaffner (University of Cambridge)
Prof. Tony Crook (University of St. Andrews)
Prof. Edmundo Antonio Peggion (Unesp)
Prof. Martin Holbraad (University College London)
The Journal receives papers all year round, but the deadline for writings to be published on this second number is 11.04.2012.
The first number can be accessed here: http://conexoesparciais.com.br/?p=20
And the papers must be sent to: conexoesparciais@gmail.com
Please take the time to read and comment on a new contribution in the Research Ethics section:
Conference Report: Maintaining a public profile and engaging with the research community whilst still being a novice researcher
by Jenna Murray de López, November 2011
Once we are initiated into the world of post graduate study, research and academia part of our learning and opportunities arise via the networking we do at conferences, symposiums and workshops outside of our own departments. This post has been written as a reflective piece and a report of a conference I am presenting at this week in Bristol, UK – Gendered Violence International Conference (www.genderedviolence.com ). As well as linking gendered violence debates to our global blog theme of researching security, I also want to draw attention to the importance of fledgling researchers and academics to engage in conference activity from the outset – as both a method to bust the ivory tower myths of academia and a way of building confidence in your work and learning to argue your standpoint.
Background to the Conference
Timed to coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on the 25th November 2011, this conference is concerned with promoting cross-disciplinary and cross-sector debate about the causes and prevention of gendered violence and aims to provide a forum in which dialogue between academics, practitioners, policy makers and grass roots organisations can develop.
Highlights and Main Points of the Conference
The Gendered Violence Conference was a mixture of academic speakers, activists and professionals who work with women in various contexts. There is always a great challenge for the academic or researcher to put their work into accessible language, free of jargon and with meaning in a wider context. I find that having a tradition in qualitative methods and ethnography by presenting (as much as is possible) the voices of the people whom I research with I am already breaking down barriers that allow me to publicly engage with my research. The challenge is to do this without being reductionist and shying away from the complex theories that inform our work and approaches.
Although titled the Gendered Violence International Conference there was a strong emphasis on women and the different forms of violence they are subjected to in the domestic context, sex work, human trafficking. The themes were opened up by the international streams which included my own work on Obstetric Violence in Mexico, Women Survivors of gender violence in Chile, FGM and migrant communities in the EU and various global speakers on the violence and performance of masculinity (see website for more details on all of these papers).
There was an emphasis at the conference on looking for solutions to tackling gendered violence and some good discussion was achieved throughout the three days.
Questions in relation to Researching Security
Apart from the benefits mentioned above, conferences are a good place to think and test new ideas out of the direct context of your own research. This week has made me think of how gendered violence is understood in terms of questions of global security, some of the issues I have begun to think about are as follows (any comments on these questions would be appreciated):
Researching Security Network 