by Margo Okazawa-Rey
“Research is more than extraction” is an obvious principle, a mantra, for studies about people’s lives and most especially the lives of those who have suffered and still do from unimaginable yet all too frequent gender-based violence in times of wars and armed conflicts. Yet, historically, researchers from various disciplines have simply extracted “data” as impersonal bits and pieces, commodifying survivors’ experiences before leaving the research sites, never to be heard from or to return. Papers and books are published and nothing more is said or done.
In their collection of essays, Annie Bunting, Allen Kiconco, and Joel Quirk have created a platform for academic researchers to share their experiences in painstaking detail. In the process, they expose their vulnerabilities as scholars truly committed to the well-being of those whose lives they seek to understand, and to intervening to change the conditions that led to the violence.
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