#49 The importance of self-care when researching violence

In this summer special, Karen Brounéus, professor in peace and conflict research and clinical psychologist, offers practical advice to researchers and others whose work requires them to continuously ingest material containing descriptions of violence and suffering.

RESOURCES

A transcription of this episode is available on the department website: https://www.uu.se/download/18.3d4f842919ed45a4aad24a/1781682034077/%2349%20The%20importance%20of%20self-care%20when%20researching%20violence.pdf

For more on Karen’s own journey and her research, please see episode #40.

For further reading, we recommend this excellent, easy-to-read piece by WHO: “Doing what matters in times of stress: An illustrated guide”: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240003927

For a survey and analysis on the experiences of collecting conflict data, please see this recent article in the Journal of Peace Research, titled Researching Human Rights Violations: Assessing Research-related Stress Among Research Assistants.” The article is available open access on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433251370495