NEXT UP: Dana El Kurd on positionality and the advantages (and disadvantages) of looking like, and talking in the same language as, one's human subjects.

#palestine #positionality #qualitativeresearch #improvisationalpluralism #archivalraiders

No one leaves home without a plan -- but the question is whether you can take advantage of the opportunties that present themselves. "Improvisational pluralism," by Dana El Kurd. #palestine #fieldworktips #interviewtechniques #archivalraiders

Dana El Kurd (University of Richmond) on fieldwork as a homecoming, improvising, making people laugh, and being able to laugh at yourself.

#ethnographymatters #palestine #researchdesign #qualitativeresearch #positionality #archivalraiders

Hey, so, funny story about police and data...

"The war sucks you in."

How does one study war up close without acquiring dangerous habits of mind? How is the professional path of a military analyst different from a ‘pure’ academic path - and what do cloistered academics who never work in the government miss? Mike Kofman, unfiltered.

My unsolicited advice for you today: Don't follow accounts that post rage bait from tiktok or Facebook. There's plenty of verified information to get mad at in this world. 🌠

ROSE MCDERMOTT: "It never occurred to me until I was in college that not everyone knew how to do that."

#politicalscience #militaryfamilies #ravelife #archivalraiders

Most should not take time to watch the whole speech, but this short thread is useful, unpacking what he's suggesting from a HR perspective (for civilians who have not served):

bsky.app/profile/silv...

This bit, & the one in the next reskeet, need to be fully unpacked. What Hegseth is asserting here is that the zero defect concept, which plays an important role in an up or out military, is going away as long as he's SecDef. 1/

UP NEXT! Kirsten Weld (Harvard) discusses the discover of Guatemala's secret police archives. What did the author of PAPER CADAVERS carry with her into the field? Tune in to find out.

archiveraiders.weebly.com

Academic historians (and Tom Friedman) articulating the constraints on an ideal future for Ukraine, trying to shape European coalitions in real time. Senior scholars at the top of the public relations game. Worth an hour for some of us.

www.youtube.com/live/5JxKRAl...

I think they mean people who read entire books without using Gen AI, which the university consultants have been pushing relentlessly as a way to make reading easier and less challenging for our students.

Mark Beissinger on the researcher as archivist.

Mark Beissinger on handling his KGB handler in the late Soviet period. #vodka #realexistingsocialism

Jervis Forum Roundtable 17-3
Roger D. Petersen’s Death, Dominance, and State-Building: The US in Iraq and the Future of American Military Intervention
wp.me/p2Insd-7u3
“counterinsurgency and military intervention will not go away, despite any US desire to turn away from it” –Jacqueline L. Hazelton

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

After a long haitus, a new episode is finally up today. Mark Beissinger (Princeton) recalls fieldwork in the Soviet Union, the transition to a “post-Soviet” experience, and speculates about the future of fieldwork in Russia as U.S.-Russia relations return to something resembling a new Cold War.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARCHIVE is a podcast featuring interviews with social scientists whose fieldwork inspires us. Visit the archive here (archiveraiders.weebly.com), or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Here's Margaret Levi and the tale of misfiled interview notes with Jimmy Hoffa.

Epic.

COMING SOON -- 4 NEW EPISODES

* Mark Beissinger (to celebrate his retirement from Princeton)
* Rose McDermott (Brown)
* Kirsten Weld (Harvard)
* Michael Kofman (Carnegie)

archiveraiders.weebly.com