Ethics in Situations

April 11-12, 2019

Anne Lavanchy (HES)

Laurence Ossipow (HES)

Nolwenn Bühler (UNIL)

Prof. Kim Fortun, UCI, USA,

Prof. Marie-Andrée Jacob, University of Leeds, UK

This module aims at providing insights and support to the participants in engaging with legal, ethical and deontological questions, dilemmas and involvements in the context of their research. The objectives will be both to clarify the legal and institutional context in which the PhD students have to work and to open wider discussions on the ethical dimensions of their research. The discussions will address four questions: Which are the characteristics, limitations and opportunities of the new legal requirements, and ethical codes, including Data Management Plan (DMP)? Which are the specificities of the ethical issues raised by ethnographic methods, in particular observation/participant observation, especially when working with «subaltern» research participants? Which are the ethical issues linked to the production of situated knowledge, positionality and the use of reflexivity in ethnography, and in particular regarding the researcher's positionality or the possibility of proposing a feminist approach? Are the research ethics similar when conducting fieldwork at home or/and abroad? Through these questions, PhD students will have the opportunity to discuss the challenges they face at all stages of their research. This include the ethical problems linked to the protection and anonymity of the research participants; but also the ones that are already dealt with during the earlier stage of defining a research object; the specific ethical pitfalls encountered during the analysis process; and the ones related to the end of the process (communication, dissemination of the research results, PhD viva). The module will alternate presentations by experienced researchers, workshop discussions of the papers submitted by the PhD students, wider exchanges and debates on the topic of research ethics in both formal and more informal settings. It might include the screening and discussion related to a documentary film (El Pacto de Adriana) addressing similar ethical issues. The program will give ample room to reflect upon ethical issues in relation with each doctoral project

Schloss Überstorf FB

Participation fee: CHF 50 

For students of the CUSO universities (Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel and Fribourg) and from the universities of Bern, Zürich and Luzern, accommodation and meals at Schloss Überstorf are organized and covered by the CUSO doctoral program in anthropology. Travel expenses will be reimbursed based on half-fare train ticket (2nd class) from the student's university to the place of the activity.

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