In this special final episode, we weave together numerous lessons from throughout the book and podcast, from the value of unstructured time in the field to the surprising parallels between hosting a podcast and doing fieldwork. Using some of our...

Fotini Christia, Aliyu Zakayo, and Aidan Milliff offer their perspectives as a full professor, a medical doctor and researcher, and an advanced graduate student, respectively, on the ethical and logistical challenges posed by COVID-19 for field...

We trace the process of learning field research by talking to a group of excellent undergraduate students (Leah Hickert, Jack MacDonald, and Renata Martinez) and advanced graduate students (Vierelina Fernandez, Ayse Lokmanoglu) about how they first...

We welcome Jesse Driscoll from UCSD, Milli Lake from the London School of Economics, and Sarah Parkinson from Johns Hopkins University to talk about teaching field research. How can we teach others how to think about, prepare for, and carry out ethical,...

We welcome Ravi Perry from Howard University and Sarah Zukerman Daly from Columbia University to talk about the crucial but oft-overlooked issues of health and safety in the field—whether in one's home community or in a foreign location. Ravi and Sarah...

We talk to Enze Han from the University of Hong Kong and Robert Ross from Boston College about the significant potential and challenges of doing research in China. Our guests reflect on everything from their experiences building academic relationships...

We welcome Matthew Cancian from MIT, Kristin Fabbe from Harvard Business School, and Kristin Michelitch from Vanderbilt University to talk about conducting field surveys and experiments. We discuss what goes into designing an experiment or survey,...

We welcome Zoe Marks from Harvard Kennedy School and Will Reno from Northwestern University to talk about doing research in insecure or conflict-affected situations, and learning how to keep our research participants, our teams, and ourselves safe in...

Once you're in "the field," how can you most effectively gain knowledge and collect information? How do you build trust and connections with local leaders? How to show respect and become part of a new community? How to access and decipher classified...

How do our identities and lives outside of academia shape our fieldwork? And what does that look like in a region like the Middle East? We talk to Carla Abdo-Katsipis from Wesleyan University, Nadya Hajj from Wellesley College, and Ian Lustick from the...

Peter and Ora welcome Erica Chenoweth from Harvard Kennedy School and Zachariah Mampilly from the Marxe School of International Affairs at Baruch College to discuss research ethics, including whether political scientists should have an individual and/or...

In this introductory episode, Peter and Ora discuss the evolving definition of "field research," which is conventionally defined as research conducted outside of one’s institution to observe, interact with, and interview people, work in the archives,...

Ora and Peter welcome Christina Greer from Fordham University, Wendy Pearlman from Northwestern University, and Paul Staniland from the University of Chicago to discuss local knowledge, perhaps the most important aspect of field research. Local...