I loved the opportunity to speak on this panel. It got me thinking about how to do fieldwork in a world that seems increasingly inaccessible for a variety of reasons: money, time, responsibilities that drain us--all of which are exacerbated due to COVID. THREAD 1/n https://twitter.com/EDorssom/status/1286301270400217089

First, I think it’s important to note that fieldwork isn’t impossible right now, although f2f interactions might be. We can use online technologies, but their utility for us and our ability to use them will vary as a function of where we are in the resource process. 2/n

For example: Do you have a new research project? Be strategic! Choose a site that you know well—many do this anyway. Having a “sense of place” about your research site can help you better analyze data and assess its validity, among other things, even if you can't go back now. 3/n

Knowing your site will also make identifying interlocutors, research subjects, and potential collaborators on the ground possible. Working with (note: not taking from or relying upon) interlocutors and collaborators will be key to f2f fieldwork at least for now. 4/n

Alternatively, are you committed to a project but have no data yet? Here, you have less flexibility. You’ve read a lot and probably have neat hypotheses. It’s hard to let these ideas and progress go. 5/n

One idea is to create an ideal list of everything you want to do. Assess what is feasible now and consider what might be possible in the future. Carry out a triage of sorts on your research design. Here you may need to rework hypotheses, but that’s okay. 6/n

Our hypotheses tend to be revised as we go anyway! It’s good not to overly commit to any one explanation. Once you’ve got a wish list and also a sequential to-do list, keep careful track of the data you collect, where things didn’t go as expected, how you adjusted. 7/n

Again, we should do this anyway. It keeps us honest and makes writing up our research later so much easier. 8/n

Perhaps you were halfway through collecting research when the pandemic hit. Here adaptation may seem especially hard. Three thoughts. 1. Assess what you have already. Is it enough to make your argument? Will secondary literature help? If so, stop here. 9/n

2. Can you continue to collect replicable data online? This will depend on the data collection method. Interviews may be easier to continue online than focus groups, for example. Ask others what they think about the comparability of online and f2f data. 10/n

3. Can you see the new, online data as triangulating/refining the first round of data? Consider the non-f2f data as a second set of findings that can help you build from or refine your original data. 11/n

In any of these cases, working iteratively between data collected and data analysis will be key. (But keeping track of your data and analyzing as you go is a good idea anyway.) 12/n

If you find f2f data collection essential, you can turn to interlocutors on the ground. They are colleagues. Be prepared to compensate them for their time, be it with money, some skill you can provide, an offer to integrate one of their research questions into your protocol. 13/n

Indeed, collaborative methodology may be an approach to add to our methods tool kit, as a necessary addition to the methods we already do. 14/n

One last thing. There are always ethical considerations to collecting data in a research site. These are compounded during (and after) a pandemic. Your work never trumps the priorities of the people you work with on the ground. When in doubt, be risk averse. 15/n

In sum: Be disciplined but also flexible. View collaborations on the ground as just that: collaboration. Be as creative as you can. Don’t despair. And be kind to yourself. Research is hard. Fieldwork is hard. But it is important and can still be done. 16/n

Finally, I’m working with colleagues to write these ideas up formally. But this is not an exhaustive list. E.g., the ethics of fieldwork merits multiple threads. When in doubt, ask your mentors, ask scholars whose work you admire, talk to your IRB, and, of course, READ. 17/n

That's all for now. More thoughts to come. And please feel free to add here if you have additional ideas or thoughts! 18/18