Working with survivors of war rape and sexual violence: fieldwork reflections from Bosnia-Hercegovina

Researchers rarely write about the challenges that they confront and navigate while undertaking fieldwork. This is a missed opportunity for us to learn from each other. This is an article about some of the problems and hurdles that the author faced during her recent year in Bosnia-Hercegovina working with survivors of war rape and sexual violence. It discusses some of the main practical, ethical and personal challenges that arose. It is hoped that this article will benefit other researchers, and that it will make university ethics committees more aware of the fact that preparation for fieldwork needs to involve more than just the completion of an ethics form. Undertaking difficult and sensitive work in the field not only impacts on the individuals that we are interviewing, but also on us as researchers. This fact should be better recognized.