Episode 28: Dana El Kurd

Dana El Kurd (University of Richmond) reflects on the personal and ethical dimensions of a research journey that is also a journey home — in her case, to Palestine. Her candid insights on foreign-assisted state-building, doing fieldwork with limited resources, and navigating data collection in authoritarian environments illuminate how differently the field can treat different researchers. She asks whether scholars trying to understand public opinion under these constraints can — or even should — strive for “neutrality.” An inspiring conversation for junior scholars who think they’re the only ones improvising methods as they go.