Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Feminist Research in Transitional Justice Studies: Navigating Silences and Disruptions in the Field

  • Published:
Human Rights Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper will analyse what it takes to conduct feminist and sensitive research in countries that have seen mass human rights violations. Transitional justice research involves critical examination of difficult topics which raises a number of ethical and methodological issues for both the participants and the researchers. Although empirical research has been a facet of the studies produced in the field, researchers’ accounts of undertaking research in often politically sensitive environments is largely missing from published books and research reports. This paper is informed by personal experiences of doing research in wartime rape in the ethnically and politically divided country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I argue that the researcher’s profile and positionality directly affects the fieldwork and that fieldwork is a dialogical process which is structured by the researcher and the wider political processes in the country.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Valuable contribution in identifying challenges in conducting qualitative research in difficult circumstances come from other fields of study in particular anthropology. For some good reflections on difficulties of research in conflict and post-conflict see, for example, Sriram et al. (2009) Surviving field research: working in violent and difficult situations. Routledge, London; Nordstrom and Robbe (1995) Fieldwork under fire: contemporary studies of violence and survival. University of California Press, California. For more recent personal accounts into challenges of research practice in the field, see Wamai (2014) First contact with the field: experiences of early career researcher in the context of national and international politics in Kenya. J Human Rights Practice 6(2):213–222; Nouwen (2014) ‘As you set out for Ithaka’: Practical, epistemological, ethical, and existential questions about socio-legal empirical research in conflict. Leiden Journal of International Law 27(1):227–260; Buckley-Ziestel (2007) Ethnographic researcher after violent conflicts: personal reflections on dilemmas and challenges. J Peace, Conflict and Development 10:1–9; Simić (2008) A tour to a site of genocide: mothers, borders and bones. J International Women’s Studies 9(3):320–330.

  2. There is no unified understanding of feminist methodologies and research strategies, but they all have common aims and characteristics. The main aim is to capture women’s lived experiences and legitimise their voices as source of knowledge. See, for example, Campbell and Wasco (2000) Feminist approaches to social science: epistemological and methodological tenets. American Journal of Community Psychology 28(6):773–791; Harding (1987) Is there a feminist method? In: Harding S (ed) Feminism and methodology: Social Science Issues. Indiana University Press, Indiana, pp 1–14.

  3. Established by UN SC Res 827, UN SCOR, 48th sess, 3217th mtg, UN Doc S/RES/827 (25 May 1993). (‘Statute of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991’).

  4. UN SC Res 808, UN SCOR, 48th sess, 3175th mtg, UN Doc S/25240 (3 February 1993) annex I (‘European Community Investigative Mission into the Treatment of Muslim Women in the Former Yugoslavia: Report to European Community Foreign Ministers’).

  5. The political system that was established by the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995 is based on two entities: the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (FBiH) and the Republika Srpska (RS) and Brčko District. The Federation of BiH is predominantly inhabited by Bosniaks and Croats and Republika Srpska with Serbs.

  6. I have experienced such discouragement in a recent peer review of my book proposal.

  7. On valuable insight into insider research experiences, see Kirpitchenko and Voloder (2014) Insider research method: the significance of identities in the field. Sage, London.

  8. There has been plenty written on negotiating insider outsider status in feminist research, see, for example, Naples (1996) A feminist revisiting of the insider/outsider debate: the “outsider phenomenon” in rural Iowa. Qualitative Sociology 19(1):83–106; Corbin Dwyer and Buckle (2009) The space between: on being an insider-outsider in qualitative research. Int J Qualitative Methods 8(1):54–63; Naples (2003) Feminism and method: ethnography, discourse analysis, and activist research. Routledge, London; Wahab et al. (2015) Feminisms in social work research: promise and possibilities for justice-based knowledge. Routledge, UK.

  9. At that time, I was on maternity leave for a year. I, however, could not decline an invitation from these women who wanted to meet with me and tell me their stories.

  10. According to some estimates, 67 % defendants were Serbs.

  11. On importance of listening to war narratives, see Porter (2015) Connecting peace, justice and reconciliation Lynne Rienner, Boulder, Colo.

  12. I describe these struggles in more detail in my book Simić (2014) Surviving Peace. Spinifex, Melbourne.

  13. Email communication with Kajevska, on file with author, 10 February 2015. Kajevska wished to be fully identified.

  14. Email communication on file with author, 26 August 2014.

  15. I have recently undertaken empirical inquiry to explore difficulties other researchers face in the field. The findings are expected to be published in 2016.

  16. I would like to thank to Prof. Elisabeth Porter for drawing my attention to this particular form of knowledge.

References

  • Alison M (2007) Wartime sexual violence: Women’s human rights and questions of masculinity. Review of International Studies 33:75–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alvesson M (2002) Postmodernism and social research. Open University Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson K, Armitage S, Jack D, Wittner J (1990) Beginning where we are; Feminist methodology in oral history. In: McCarl Nielsen J (ed) Feminist research methods: Exemplary readings in social sciences. Westview Press, Boulder CO, pp 94–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Askin KD (1997) War crimes against women: Prosecuting in International War Crimes Tribunals. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Netherlands.

    Google Scholar 

  • Babacan H, Babacan A (2013) Difficult research conversations: sharing socially sensitive research in the public domain. Etropic 21.1:52–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellas ML (1999) Emotional labour in academia: the case of professors. ANNALS, AAPSS 561:96–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benderly J (1997) Rape, feminism, and nationalism in the war in Yugoslav successor states. In: West LA (ed) Feminist Nationalism. Routledge, New York, pp 59–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergen RK (1993) Interviewing survivors of martial rape: Doing feminist research on sensitive topics. In: Renzetti CM, Lee RM (eds) Researching sensitive topics. Sage, Newbury Park, CA, pp 197–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blakely K (2007) Reflections on the role of emotion in feminist research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 6(2):59–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brison, S (2002) Aftermath: Violence and the remaking of a self. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • British Embassy Sarajevo (2013) Legacy of wartime sexual violence in Bosnia still far from addressed. GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/world-location-news/legacy-of-wartime-sexual-violence-in-bosnia-still-far-from-addressed. Accessed 20 April 2015.

  • Buckley-Ziestel S (2007) Ethnographic researcher after violent conflicts: personal reflections on dilemmas and challenges. J Peace, Conflict and Development 10:1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burnet JE (2012) Genocide lives in us: Women, memory, and silence in Rwanda. University of Wisconsin Press, Wisconsin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler J (2009) Frames of war: When is life grievable? Versoe, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell R (2001) Emotionally involved: the impact of researching rape. Routledge, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell R, Wasco SM (2000) Feminist approaches to social science: Epistemological and methodological tenets. American Journal of Community Psychology 28(6):773–791.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter C (2012) ‘You talk of terrible things so matter-of-factly in this language of science’: constructing human rights in the academy. Perspectives on Politics 10(2):363–383.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins PH (1990) Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness and the politics of empowerment. Hyman, US.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corbin Dwyer S, Buckle J (2009) The space between: on being an insider-outsider in qualitative research. Int J Qualitative Methods 8(1):54–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Čorkalo Biruški D (2014) Etički izazovi kvalitativnih istraživanja u zajednici: od planiranja do istraživačkog izvještaja. Ljetopis socijalnog rada 21(3):393–423. doi: 10.3935/ljsr.v21i2.7

    Google Scholar 

  • Das V, Kleiman A, Lock M, Ramphele M, Reynolds P (eds) (2000) Violence and subjectivity. University of California Press, Berkeley.

  • Davies P (2000) Doing interviews with female offenders. In: Jupp V, Davies P, Francies P (eds) Doing criminological research. Sage, London, pp 82–96.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Davies CA (2008) Reflexive ethnography: a guide to researching selves and others. Routledge, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickson-Smith D, James EL, Liamputtong P (2008) Undertaking sensitive research in the health and social sciences. Managing boundaries, emotions and risks. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Douglas H (2011) Domestic violence research: Valuing stories. In Bartles L, Richards K (eds) Qualitative criminology: Stories from the field. Hawkins Press, NSW, pp 129–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • England KVL (1994) Getting personal: reflexivity, positionality, and feminist research. The Professional Geographer 46(1):80–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fonow MM, Judith Cook J (1990) Knowledge and women’s interests: issues of epistemology and methodology in feminist sociological research. In: Nielsen JM (ed) Feminist research methods: exemplary readings in the social sciences. Westview Press, Boulder, Colo, pp 69–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foss KA, Foss SK (1994) Personal experience as evidence in feminist scholarship. Western Journal of Communication 58:39–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harding S (1987) Is there a feminist method? In: Harding S (ed) Feminism and methodology: Social Science Issues. Indiana University Press, Indiana, pp 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helms E (2013) On innocence and victimhood: Gender, nation, and women’s activism in postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina. The University of Wisconsin Press, US.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henne K, Troshynski M (2013) Mapping the margins of intersectionality: Criminological possibilities in a transnational world. Theoretical Criminology 17(4):455–473.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henry MG (2003) ‘Where are you really from’: Representations, identity and power in the fieldwork experiences of a South Asian Diasporic. Qualitative Research 3(2):229–242.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ivkovich SK, Hagan J (2011) Reclaiming justice: The International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and Local Courts. Oxford University Press, London.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kirpitchenko L, Voloder L (2014) Insider research method: the significance of identities in the field. Sage, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleinman S (1991) Fieldworkers’ feelings: what we felt, who we are, how we analyse. In: Shaffir WB, Stebbins RA (eds) Experiencing fieldwork: an inside view of qualitative research. Sage, London, pp 184–195.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lee RM (1993) Doing research on Sensitive Topics. London, Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee RM, Renzetti CM (1990) The problems of researching sensitive topics: an overview and introduction. American Behavioral Scientist 33(5):510–528.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Letherby G (2000) Dangerous liaisons: auto/biography in research and research writing. In: Lee-Treweek G, Linkogle S (eds) Danger in the field: risks and ethics in social research. Routledge, London, pp 91–113.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindgren M, Nikolic-Ristanovic V (2011) Crime victims: International and Serbian perspective. OSCE. http://www.osce.org/serbia/85268?download=true. Accessed 20 April 2015.

  • Lloyd B-A, Ennis F, Atkinson T (1994) The power of woman-positive literacy work: program-based action research. Fernwood Publishing, Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lockwood SM (1992) Facts or fictions? Fieldwork relationships and the nature of data. In: Devereux S, Hoddinott J (eds) Fieldwork in developing countries. Lynne Rienner Publishers, Coulder, Co., pp 164–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macanović A (2014) Za srpske žrtve u BiH niko ne odgovara. Večernje Novosti Online. http://www.novosti.rs/vesti/naslovna/dosije/aktuelno.292.html:486806-Za-srpske-zrtve-u-BiH-niko-ne-odgovara. Accessed 20 April 2015.

  • McCosker H, Barnard A, Gerber R (2001) Undertaking sensitive research: Issues and strategies for meeting the safety needs of all participants. Forum Qualitative Social Research 2(1):1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • McWilliams M, Aoláin FN (2013) ‘There is a war going on you know’: Addressing the complexity of violence against women in conflicted and post conflict societies. Transitional Justice Review 1(2):4–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Melrose M (2002) Labor pains: some considerations on the difficulties researching juvenile prostitution. Int. J. Social Research Methodology 5(4):333–351. doi: 10.1080/1364557011004596-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morley L and Walsh V (eds) (1995) Feminist Academics: Creative Agents for Change. Taylor and francis, London.

  • Morrison Z (2007) ‘Feeling heavy’: Vicarious trauma and other issues facing those who work in the sexual assault field. Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault. http://www.aifs.gov.au/acssa/pubs/wrap/acssa_wrap4.pdf. Accessed 20 April 2015.

  • Naples N (1996) A feminist revisiting of the insider/outsider debate: the “outsider phenomenon” in rural Iowa. Qualitative Sociology 19(1):83–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Naples N (2003) Feminism and method: ethnography, discourse analysis, and activist research. Routledge, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen JM (ed) (1990) Feminist research methods: exemplary readings in the social sciences. Westview Press, Boulder, Colo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nikolic-Ristanovic V (1999) Living without democracy and peace: Violence against women in the former Yugoslavia. Violence Against Women 5(1):63–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nikolic-Ristanovic V (2000) Women, violence and war: wartime victimization of refugees in the Balkans. Central European University Press, Hungary.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nordstrom, C (1997) A different kind of war story. University of Pennsylvania Press, Pennsylvania.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nordstrom C, Robbe ACGM (eds) (1995) Fieldwork under fire: contemporary studies of violence and survival. University of California Press, California.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nouwen SMH (2014) ‘As you set out for Ithaka’: Practical, epistemological, ethical, and existential questions about socio-legal empirical research in conflict. Leiden Journal of International Law 27(1):227–260. doi: 10.1017/S092215651300071X

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olson, L.N. (2004) ‘The role of voice in the (Re)Construction of a Battered Women’s Identity: An Autoethnography of One Woman’s Experience of Abuse. Women’ Studies in Communication 27 (1), 1–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) (2014) Combating Impunity for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in BiH: Progress and Challenges: An Analysis of Criminal Proceedings Before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina between 2005 and 2013. OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. http://www.osce.org/bih/117051?download=true. Accessed 20 April 2015.

  • Pearlman, L, MacIan, P (1995) Vicarious traumatization: An empirical study of the effects of trauma work on trauma therapists. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 26(6):558–565.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peskin V (2005) Beyond victor’s justice? The challenge of prosecuting the winners at the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. J Human Rights 4(2):213–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pham P and Vinck P (2007) Empirical research and the development and assessment of transitional justice mechanisms. The International Journal of Transitional Justice 1(2):231–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porter E (2015) Connecting peace, justice and reconciliation Lynne Rienner, Boulder, Colo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renzetti CM, Lee RM (eds) (1993) Researching Sensitive Topics. Sage Publications, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schauben LJ, Fraizer PA (1995) Vicarious trauma: the effect on female counsellors working with sexual violence survivors. Psychology of Women Quarterly 19(1):49–64. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-6402.1995.tb00278.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sieber JE, Stanley B (1988) Ethical and professional dimensions of socially sensitive research. American Psychologists 43(1):49–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simić O (2008) A tour to a site of genocide: mothers, borders and bones. J International Women’s Studies 9(3):320–330.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simić O (2014) Surviving Peace. Spinifex, Melbourne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simpson K (2007) Voices silenced, voices rediscovered: Victims of violence and the reclamation of language in transitional societies. International Journal of Law in Context 3(2):89–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skogan WG, Maxfield MG (1981) Coping with crime. Sage, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith S (2004) Singing our world into existence: International relations theory and September 11. International Studies Quarterly 48(3):499–515.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sriram CL, King JC, Mertus JA, Martin-Ortega O, Herman J (eds) (2009) Surviving field research: working in violent and difficult situations. Routledge, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steier, F (1993) Research and Reflexivity. Sage, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiglmayer A (ed) (1994) Mass rape: The war against women in Bosnia-Herzegovina. University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska.

    Google Scholar 

  • Subotic J (2010) No escape from ethnicity? Confessions of an accidental CNN pundit. PS: Political Science & Politics 43(1):115–120. doi:10.1017/S1049096509990667

    Google Scholar 

  • Tabak S (2011) False dichotomies of transitional justice: Gender, conflict and combatants in Columbia. International Law and Politics 44:103–163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanesini A (1999) An introduction to feminist epistemologies. Blackwell Publishers, New Jersey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tisdall K, Davis JM, Gallagher M (2009) Researching with children and young people: research design, methods and analysis. Sage, London.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tsai L (2010) Quantitative research and issue of political sensitivity in rural China. In: Carlson A, Gallagher ME, Lieberthal K, Manion M (eds) Contemporary Chinese politics: new sources, methods, and field strategies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 246–265.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Turner C (2013) Deconstructing transitional justice. Law and Critique 24(2):193–209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UN SC Res 808, UN SCOR, 48th sess, 3175th mtg, UN Doc S/25240 (1993) annex I. (‘European Community Investigative Mission into the Treatment of Muslim Women in the Former Yugoslavia: Report to European Community Foreign Ministers’).

  • UN SC Res 827, UN SCOR, 48th sess, 3217th mtg, UN Doc S/RES/827 (1993) (‘Statute of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991’).

  • Volcic Z, Erjavec, K (2015) Watching pink reality TV. Feminist Media Studies 15(1):74–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vranic S (1996) Pred zidom šutnje Antibarbarus, Croatia.

  • Wahab S, Anderson-Nathe B, Gringer C (2015) Feminisms in social work research: promise and possibilities for justice-based knowledge. Routledge, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wamai N (2014) First contact with the field: experiences of early career researcher in the context of national and international politics in Kenya. J Human Rights Practice 6(2):213–222. doi: 10.1093/jhuman/huu012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wellings K, Branigan, P, Mitchell K (2000) Discomfort, discord and discontinuity as data: Using focus groups to research sensitive topics. Culture, Health & Sexuality: An International Journal for Research, Intervention and Care 2(3):255–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westkott M (1990) Feminist criticism of the social sciences. In: McCarl Nielsen J (ed) Feminist research methods: Exemplary readings in social sciences. Westview Press, Boulder, CO, pp 47–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkins R (1993) Taking it personally: a note on emotion and autobiography. Sociology 27(1):93–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson K (1992) Thinking about the ethics of fieldwork. In: Devereux S, Hoddinott J (eds) Fieldwork in developing countries. Harvester Wheatsheaf, New York, 179–199.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodward SL (2000) Violence-prone area or international transition? Adding the role of outsiders in Balkan violence. In: Das V (ed) Violence and subjectivity. University of California Press, California, pp 19–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zahar M-J (2009) Fieldwork, objectivity and academic enterprise. In: Sriram CL, King JC, Mertus JA, Martin-Ortega O, Herman J (eds) Surviving field research: working in violent and difficult situations. Routledge, London, pp 190–212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zarkov D (2001) The body of the other man: sexual violence and the construction of masculinity, sexuality and ethnicity in Croatian media. In: Moser C, Clark F (eds) Victims, perpetrators or actors? Gender, armed conflict and political violence. Zed Books, Zed Books, London, pp 69–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zarkov D (2003) Feminism and disintegration of Yugoslavia: On the politics of gender and ethnicity. Social Development Issues 24(3):59–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zarkov D (2005) ‘Sexual violence and war in Former Yugoslavia’ at the Cordaid’s Three Queens Debate: Gender-based war crimes. The Hague http://www.iccwomen.org/news/docs/CORDAID_Debate_Jan05_Zarkov.doc. Accessed 20 April 2015.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Griffith Law School I Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, 4111, Australia

    Olivera Simic

Authors
  1. Olivera Simic
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Olivera Simic.

Additional information

I would like to thank to Prof Heather Douglas, Dr. Lia Kent and Prof Elisabeth Porter for their helpful feedback on previous drafts of this paper. I also extend my gratitude to anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Simic, O. Feminist Research in Transitional Justice Studies: Navigating Silences and Disruptions in the Field. Hum Rights Rev 17, 95–113 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-015-0378-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-015-0378-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation