Authors

Discussion

This roundtable organized by the EECES WAF aims to address a key challenge in post-Soviet studies: the difficulties that scholars have, and will continue to face in a post-pandemic world, when conducting research in the former USSR. So far, a very limited number of works have elicited theoretical and methodological discussions around the underlying societal practices which may affect some scholars researching the region, especially those who are early-career and female. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic now poses additional challenges, which will persist going forward, at least temporarily, in terms of accessing participants, resources, and archives based in the former Soviet states, as well as in the ways that we carry out ethical and transparent research. For these reasons, this roundtable homes in on the strategies employed by early-career female researchers from various backgrounds in an attempt to cope with the COVID-19 crisis. To do so, the roundtable speakers will each present their experiences conducting research in the region during the pandemic. This roundtable thus aims to begin a discussion about conducting empirical research in the former USSR, including both the challenges and best practices, which will hopefully aid other scholars studying the region, especially those still in the planning stages of their research.