Carrying out and navigating sensitive fieldwork
Brussels & online, 29 September – 1 October 2025
Learning and Innovation Center, Vrije Universiteit Brussel / Université Libre de Bruxelles
Call:
The COST Action DATAMIG (Data Matters: Sociotechnical Challenges of European Migration and Border Control) invites applications from junior and early-career researchers for a three-day training school on conducting fieldwork in sensitive environments related to migration and border studies. This hands-on training is designed to equip participants with practical skills, methodological tools, and ethical awareness necessary to carry out fieldwork in sensitive contexts. This includes research with actors involved in public security or border control, as well as with people on the move, asylum seekers, and other vulnerable populations. Tailored for researchers planning empirical data collection, the program combines interactive workshops on ethics, reflexivity, and trust-building strategies with insights into the challenges of navigating institutional opacity and human vulnerability in the field.
Confirmed workshops and instructors:
• Preparing the fieldwork, evaluating sensitivity (Anthony Amicelle, Sciences Po Bordeaux) • Engaging with vulnerable population in migration and border research (Martina Tazzioli, Università di Bologna)
• Studying-up: interviewing migration and security policymakers (Matthias Leese, ETH Zurich) • Exploring the offline-online continuum research with netnography (Kirstin Eggeling, University of Copenhagen)
• Additional instructors will be announced shortly.
Funding for participants:
The COST Action DATAMIG will cover travel costs to Brussels and provide a per diem to support meals and accommodation for all selected participants.
The training school will be hybrid: participants who would like to join online only should announce it in their applications.
Application:
To apply, please submit the following documents no later than 21 July 2025 to both [email protected] and [email protected] (with the object: DATAMIG training school):
1. A cover letter (max. 1 page) introducing your research area, describing the sensitive nature of your planned fieldwork, and explaining what you would expect from the training, (if relevant, specify whether you would like to attend online);
2. A CV (max. 2 pages).
Note that selected participants will have to formally join the COST Action DATAMIG to be eligible for reimbursement.
Acknowledgment:
The training school Carrying out and navigating sensitive fieldwork is co-organised by Juliette Dupont (F.R.S-FNRS, UCLouvain), Rocco Bellanova (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and Michael Sewell (Vrije Universiteit Brussel). It is funded by the DATAMIG COST Action. More information on DATAMIG – COST Action is available on: https://data-mig.eu/. The workshop is also co-organized by the ERC project
DATAUNION (project number 101043213). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the organizers, instructors or participants only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
